The anticipation surrounding the release of the second season of “The Witcher” has been palpable among fans, who have eagerly awaited its arrival on Netflix. However, the excitement has been dampened by an unfortunate turn of events, as an early leak has allowed online pirates to gain access to the season ahead of its official premiere this Friday.
“The Witcher” has undoubtedly become one of Netflix’s most beloved series, captivating audiences worldwide with its fantastical storytelling and gripping characters. The first season, released in late 2019, shattered records by attracting over 76 million viewers within a month of its debut.
Fans have eagerly awaited the arrival of the second season, enduring nearly a two-year wait for its release. This Friday marks the highly anticipated premiere of all eight episodes of the new season on Netflix.
Author Andrzej Sapkowski, whose books served as the inspiration for the series, has praised producer Lauren Schmidt Hissrich for her stellar adaptation of the source material. He expressed hope for an even more epic third season to come.
However, the excitement surrounding the second season’s premiere has been overshadowed by a disappointing development. Just hours ago, the season premiere leaked on various pirate sites, spoiling Netflix’s grand unveiling. It appears that someone gained access to a screener copy and decided to share it with the world prematurely, much to the dismay of eager fans and the streaming platform alike.
TorrentFreak was able to confirm that the leak is real. There are various releases circulating that differ in quality but these likely all came from the same source. There are no visible watermarks and the episode comes with all the usual Netflix branding and credits.
The “WEB-DL” tag in the release name suggests that the leak comes from an online source. It comes with optional English subtitles, which are likely sourced from Netflix as well.
Netflix has an in-house anti-piracy team that will try to contain the leak before more damage is done. However, removing the leaked copies from the Internet entirely will be an impossible task.
Interestingly, this is not the first high-profile Netflix leak this year. Several movies including Army of Thieves, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, The Power of the Dog and The Guilty came out early on pirate sites.
A few years ago Netflix was pretty cavalier about piracy. At the time, the company used piracy data to determine what shows to add to its library and CEO Reed Hastings said that “Netflix is so much easier than torrenting.”
That last comment still holds, but only if the content is actually available on Netflix of course.