Following the release of the upcoming trailer for Netflix’ The Witcher season two, many fans were decidedly overjoyed at the return of the popular show looking to raise the stakes higher than they’ve ever been. But many questioned the song choice depicted in the trailer, as it uses Kanye West’s “Monster” from his much-lauded 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The most obvious criticisms came from the simple fact that the futuristic sounds of the track don’t seem to match up with the vast and ancient fantasy world that more closely resembles Earth’s medieval period than it does the very modern era which is representative of hip-hop, a genre of music that was created in the 1970s.
We’ll admit the trailer tries its best with the material it has, drawing out some of the more epic-sounding instrumentals in the song. And it’s not as egregious of a mismatch as the Sonic film’s infamous choice of Coolio’s Gangster’s Paradise for its trailer, since at least the Ye track is called Monster and the show is about a monster hunter.
But while the retrofuturism of West’s music can work in something like the trailer for the modern interpretation of The Great Gatsby, as in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film, it may be more discordant paired with a show involving swords, castles, dragons, and sorcery.
Perhaps the haunting, Byzantium-sounding music composed by Marcin Przybyłowicz and Mikołaj Stroiński from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt videogame would be more appropriate?
Another point of contention wasn’t necessarily the song choice per se, but the segment of the song which featured what a number of fans deemed a lackluster verse from featuring artist Jay-Z.
If you want to check out the trailer for yourself, you can watch it right here.
The Witcher returns to Netflix for its second season on Dec. 17.
