'The Witcher' Is Becoming the New 'Walking Dead' in the Worst Way Possible
You can feel it before you see the numbers: the conversation dries up. New episodes land and social feeds don't light up the way they used to. That's where The Witcher is right now - and it's exactly what happened to The Walking Dead when the buzz went flat.
Both shows were cultural fixtures. Both felt everywhere, until they suddenly weren't. Different genres, same problem: the audience stopped showing up in the same way.
Liam Hemsworth (movies and tv series) in The Witcher Season 4 Netflix action fantasy. Henry Cavill (movies and tv series) fight scene.
The red flag isn't hate - it's silence
Season 4 of The Witcher arrived with a thud. Netflix's charts logged about 7.4 million views across the first four days. For context, Season 2 pulled around 18.5 million in its first full week, and Season 3 did about 15.2 million in that same window.
People didn't swarm to praise or dunk on it - they barely talked about it. And that's usually a sign that fewer viewers pressed play in the first place.
One key exit can wobble the whole machine
The Walking Dead learned this the hard way. The Season 7 premiere gave us Glenn's brutal death - a moment everyone remembers - but it also removed Steven Yeun, a heart of the ensemble. The show kept swinging, but the vibe never quite recovered. Then Rick (Andrew Lincoln (movies and tv series)) left in Season 9, and for a lot of fans, that was it.
The Witcher's version happened off-screen. Between Seasons 3 and 4, Henry Cavill walked, citing creative differences, and Liam Hemsworth stepped in as Geralt. Netflix bet the show could weather the swap. Many viewers didn't buy it. Some tuned in out of curiosity; plenty didn't come back at all.
Same problem, different speed
The Walking Dead took seven seasons at full strength before the slide. Even then, it kept going to Season 11 and landed a proper finale with multiple spinoffs to extend the universe. That's staying power.
The Witcher hit turbulence by Season 4 - less than half that runway. The drop was faster, and there's one more season to land the plane. Season 5 is set to be the last, with Hemsworth returning to close it out.
What this says about franchises right now
Big genre shows live and die on trust. Viewers will tolerate uneven plotting, but swap a central face without rock-solid story momentum and you're asking fans to renegotiate why they care. If the show's identity feels fuzzy at the same time, that's a tough combo.
Splitting ensembles, piling on new characters, chasing shock - these are common fixes that don't always fix anything. The audience can tell when the spine of the story isn't steady.
Quick facts
- The Walking Dead: 11 seasons, 177 episodes (2010-2022), multiple spinoffs still active.
- The Witcher: 4 seasons so far, 33 episodes (2019- ), Season 5 planned as the end.
- Viewership trend: Witcher S4's early window is far below S2 and S3; conversation dipped accordingly.
Where things go from here
If The Witcher can lock onto a clean, character-first arc for Season 5 - one that makes Hemsworth's Geralt feel essential instead of interim - there's still a chance to finish strong. Endings matter. So does owning the new identity instead of apologizing for it.
Meanwhile, The Walking Dead shows how long a brand can last when the core promise stays clear and spinoffs know exactly what they are. Different paths, same lesson: keep the heartbeat obvious, or the audience drifts.
Where to watch
The Witcher is streaming on Netflix. For the original run of The Walking Dead and franchise updates, visit AMC's official page.
