Every major production to have either resumed or started filming since the Coronavirus pandemic took hold has got a whole lot more expensive thanks to the rigorous health and safety protocols that are now required to gather a cast and crew of hundreds together on set safely in the age of COVID-19, and those financial implications have seen several major shows canceled after the people in charge decided that the extra investment simply wasn’t worth it in the long run.
On the other side of the coin, as competition continues to heat up during the streaming wars, the biggest projects from the various platforms will continue to increase in scope and scale. Amazon have committed to spending a billion dollars on five seasons of their Lord of the Rings series, while Disney Plus are splurging $15 million on each installment of The Mandalorian and some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe projects are said to be even more expensive, with costs as high as $25 million per episode.
The first season of The Witcher, meanwhile, saw the fantasy adaptation gain a much bigger audience than anyone could have expected, and it reigned as the single most popular TV show on the planet for weeks. The budget has never officially been confirmed, but rumors have placed it around $10 million per installment, which wouldn’t even make it the most expensive series on Netflix.
However, insider Daniel Richtman now claims that season 2 will be on par with Disney Plus’ MCU shows in terms of budget, which would indicate a markup of at least 50%. While there are no further details to back up the intel, you can’t exactly rule it out when Netflix are clearly positioning The Witcher as one of their crown jewels.
