Summary
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep makes some questionable changes to its source material and sacrifices depth for simpler monster-killing action.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep is mostly fine, from a casual point of view, but it also serves as a reminder that Netflix don’t have the slightest idea what they’re doing with this franchise. I know, I know – as if that wasn’t obvious already. But adapting one of Andrzej Sapkowski’s most beloved short stories into a depth-averse animation full of simplistic monster action and little else nonetheless feels like a terrible waste.
That beloved short story is “A Little Sacrifice”, from the Sword of Destiny collection. The broad beats have been preserved, at least. Geralt of Rivia (Doug Cockle, reprising his role from the games) and Jaskier (Joey Batey, reprising his role from the live-action show) find themselves trying to smooth over an ill-advised interspecies relationship between Prince Agloval, of the seaside region of Bremervoord, and Sh’eenaz (Emily Carey), the royal mermaid with whom he’s very much in love.
But the devil is in the details, and Sirens of the Deep has planed a lot of those away to fill the 90-minute runtime with more action instead of more character depth. See, what people like about this particular story is that it’s about love; the forbidden and unrequited kinds, the real weight of the sacrifices we must make to preserve the former and the tragedy of succumbing to the latter. Through it, Geralt – and thus the audience – come to better understand and appreciate both his love for Yennefer (Anya Chalotra again, though only seen briefly in flashbacks), and the value of his friendship with Jaskier, who evolves for perhaps the first time here beyond a musical comic-relief sidekick into a fully-fledged character in his own right.
But none of this really happens in the Netflix adaptation, which instead begins with Geralt fighting a monster, ends with Geralt fighting a bigger monster, and offers little of substantial value in-between. Some very brief flashbacks and ham-fisted dialogue reveal that Geralt is still reeling from his separation from Yennefer, but this is backgrounded to such an extent that it’s easy to forget she exists. And besides, the setting is of much more relevance to Jaskier, who grew up in Bremervoord and despises the kingdom’s military advisor, Zelest, who tormented him as a child.
A still from The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep | Image via Netflix © 2025
Jaskier also has a fondness for Essi Daven (Christina Wren doing an extraordinarily bad accent), a fellow bard who becomes a “love interest” not for him but for Geralt, which feels like a waste of Jaskier’s personal connection to the place. But this relationship is one of the key drivers in the original short story, with Essi falling in love with Geralt immediately and him unable to reciprocate her affections because of his unresolved feelings for Yennefer.
Sirens of the Deep doesn’t transplant this relationship especially well. To give Essi more agency she’s both less head-over-heels for Geralt and he, in turn, is more earnestly confused about his feelings. It’s a softer take, and less interesting, and a crucial part of the whole affair which is integral to Jaskier’s growth isn’t included at all. This seems to miss the point to me, which in the original version is Geralt realizing – and Essi grappling with – Geralt’s inability to feel anything for her given how strong his devotion to Yennefer is.
There’s a cynical part of me that suspects Netflix might be hoping to keep Essi – a fan-favourite character – around for subsequent adaptations, but it could just be a case of wanting to soften the material and some of its sensibilities (the same could be said of some other changes elsewhere.) It would be fitting, though, for the streamer to misunderstand the character to this extent, given they also commissioned The Witcher: Blood Origin, which in hindsight wasn’t a very good idea.
Animation seems to be the go-to format for adaptations these days, especially video game-adjacent ones on Netflix, and Sirens of the Deep follows the similarly mediocre Nightmare of the Wolf, though they have little to do with each other. Taken together they’re serviceable side stories that have the reassuring familiarity of the games – especially this one, with Cockle’s involvement – and the flexibility of being able to render their worlds more cost-efficiently. But they’re sorely lacking the depth of the original text, and the urge to glorify Geralt’s monster-killing abilities at the expense of everything else is sadly tedious. Die-hard fans of the original story need not apply, but for those who’re counting down the time before Liam Hemsworth takes up the White Wolf’s mantle, it’ll do as a distraction.
