“The Witcher: Sirens of the Depths”. Geralt is back on the trail [REVIEW]

The Witcher is still on the offensive. At the end of 2024, Andrzej Sapkowski, the creator of the monster-slaying paid assassin and the universe built around him, released another volume dedicated to the iconic Geralt. CD Projekt RED (responsible for bringing The Witcher to a global audience) recently showed a trailer for another role-playing game, while Netflix, which holds the rights to screen adaptations, continues to produce a high-budget live-action series. In addition to the latter, the streaming giant is systematically expanding its Witcher cinematic universe with spin-offs, further developing the world and offering new adventures unrelated to the main plot of the series. For the second time, after Nightmare of the Wolf, the decision was made to go with the Eastern anime style for The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep.

Unlike Nightmare of the Wolf or the ill-fated live-action Blood Origin, this time Netflix didn’t take any risks by creating an original story set in Sapkowski’s world. Instead, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who oversees the Netflix Witcher universe, reached for source material and entrusted the task of adapting the short story A Little Sacrifice — one of the stories from Sword of Destiny that was omitted from the first and second seasons of The Witcher — to the team at the Korean Studio Mir, under the direction of Kang Hei Chul. Sapkowski’s text is a variation on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale about the little mermaid, telling the tragic love story of a prince from a coastal kingdom and the daughter of the king of sea creatures.

Sirens of the Deep can be associated with episodes from the first season of The Witcher, shot somewhat in the “monster of the week” formula. Here we have a separate tale in which Geralt and Jaskier find themselves in Bremervoord and get caught up in a love-political turmoil between the local king and a triton king. Just like Sapkowski, Rae Benjamin and Mike Ostrowski, the writers of Sirens, juggle fairy-tale motifs and the brutal setting of heroic fantasy, creating a pretty neat and fast-paced story about passions, weaknesses, and prejudices. However, it’s impossible to hide that the filmmakers lack the flair that Sapkowski brought to it, and as a result, Sirens of the Deep leans more toward a quasi-Disney interpretation of the classic fairy tale rather than the postmodern playfulness offered by the original short story. The cartoonish impression is further enhanced by the songs, which are arranged not as serial or game world elements, but more like soft musical numbers that feel out of place in Geralt’s story. And this is the main problem with Sirens of the Deep – it’s supposed to be The Witcher, but it ends up feeling like generic fantasy, lacking the Witcher spirit. And no, it’s not about the mythical Slavic elements, but the raw, gritty revision of legends.

Along with the faithfully maintained storyline, one undeniable strength of Sirens of the Deep is the voice acting. In the English version, Geralt is voiced by Doug Cockle, the iconic voice of Geralt in the English-language games, while in the Polish version, Jacek Rozenek, known to Polish gamers, voices the White Wolf. Jaskier is voiced by Joey Batey/Marcin Franc, which creates consistency with the serial universe. The language also works in its favor – not lacking Sapkowski’s characteristic vulgarities, which somewhat balances out the fairy-tale quality and blandness introduced by the animation, which doesn’t quite fit the story. The animation style is rather average; the key design of Geralt lacks flair, and there’s an overwhelming desire to recreate the Netflix project led by Henry Cavill, who is no longer on board.

If we were to evaluate Sirens of the Deep in the context of how Netflix handles adapting Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, it could be considered one of the better offerings. But that’s a low bar, so it doesn’t speak much to the artistic quality of the film. It’s better to assess this new addition in the context of other recent anime interpretations. Here, Sirens of the Deep falls a bit short compared to the generally competent Nightmare of the Wolf, mainly lacking creativity and the atmosphere that, despite the narrative flaws, characterized the prequel about Vesemir. On the other hand, the new Netflix film fares better than the recent Rohan War, produced by Warner Bros., which felt like a cynical cash grab exploiting the well-known brand. In other words, Sirens of the Deep is simply mediocre – neither great nor terrible. And, to some extent, that’s something.