More trouble lies on the horizon for Netflix’s The Witcher as the Blood Origin prequel has been accused by artist Shawn Coss of using his original artwork as background pieces in the miniseries without any previous compensation or permission.The Witcher: Blood Origin premiered this past Christmas Day, although even fans of the main show on Netflix had a hard time enjoying it, and it quickly went on to set records as some of the worst-reviewed content put out by the streamer. Blood Origin’s poor reviews come on the back Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher, a decision that generated a fair amount of uncertainty regarding its future.And as if all that wasn’t enough, Blood Origin has now been accused by Ohio-based artist Shawn Coss (@ShawnCoss) of wrongfully using his illustrations on the set, after he was tipped off by a Twitter user that saw the uncanny similarities between his work and some posters displayed on the series. Upon being notified, Coss commented on the matter saying this was far from his first rodeo, though it is certainly the most high-profile intellectual property incident he’s had since being approached to work for late rapper Juice WRLD, even going as far as tweeting at fellow graphic artists Boss Logic for advice about what steps to take next.
To be fair, Coss himself mentioned that the most likely scenario was that another artist copied his design and pitched it to Blood Origin’s creative department without the people in charge having any clue that they were in fact copycats. At the time of writing, Netflix or The Witcher's representatives are yet to put out a statement regarding Coss' claim.
To say Blood Origin’s Christmas Day premiere has not gone down well with fans of the franchise would be an understatement as the prequel series has kept accumulating negative scores on every review site out there with no sign of it stopping anytime soon. Besides these prints, Coss exhibits his artwork on his own clothing shop, Any Means Necessary, where the dark style seen in The Witcher images can be appreciated in most of his designs.
Contrary to The Witcher 3's next-gen update, Blood Origin has endured a really tough time since releasing, and though it did crack Netflix’s global Top 10 during its first week, the series is expected to drop off for the second week. Overall, the consensus among critics appears to be that the prequel simply doesn’t have enough Witcher DNA to make it a compelling watch for fans of the books, games or the series starring Cavill.
Source: @zuzoomi; @ShawnCoss | Twitter