It's been over a year since The Witcher Season 3, Vol. 2 ending made some big reveals about where we’ll next see Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer in their dangerous travels on the Continent. The third season really pulled fans in many different directions, as our main trio’s family-like time together at the start quickly gave way to more tragedy, desperate measures, and them having to separate once again, which will lead to some intriguing and daring new adventures for everyone involved when Season 4 finally comes around.
Unfortunately, it’s still early days, so there are many things we don’t know about the new episodes. But! That doesn’t mean we’ve heard nothing about what’s to come in the fourth season of the epic fantasy that those with a Netflix subscription have turned out for in the millions. Below, you’ll find some information about what’s to come on The Witcher now that star Henry Cavill has departed, so let’s get into it!
What Is The Witcher Season 4 Release Date?
Unfortunately, as of September 2024, we don’t yet know when The Witcher Season 4 will hit its streaming home. The third season released its final episodes on July 27, and while we’ve known that another outing is planned since October 2022 (when Henry Cavill announced he was leaving on Instagram), filming was delayed until this year, which we’ll get into more a bit later.
Liam Hemsworth Is Taking Over As Geralt In The Witcher Cast
The news that the sword-swinging drama had been renewed came with a sad and shocking announcement for fans, as Cavill also revealed that he was stepping away from his post, with The Hunger Games’ Liam Hemsworth taking over as Geralt for Season 4 and 5 of the epic series. And, in late May 2024, Netflix gave us our first official look at Hemsworth in character, with a short clip that was posted to the streamer's official YouTube. Take a look!
Though the switch in leads made fans angry enough to start a petition (which basically blamed the writers for not respecting the source material), some have also come to Hemsworth’s defense, however. A promo for the third season was thought to throw the new star under the bus, which angered some in the fandom. Even still, time will tell if the fans still upset over Cavill leaving will actually return to the series for Hemsworth’s debut.
The Rest Of The Cast Is Expected To Return
The rest of the extensive cast (whose characters survived the third season, anyway) is all set to return. This means that we expect to see Freya Allan and Anya Chalotra return as Ciri and Yennefer, respectively, along with talent like Joey Batey (Jaskier), Mimî M. Khayisa (Fringilla), Eamon Farren (Cahir), Mahesh Jadu (Vilgefortz), Anna Shaffer (Triss), Royce Pierreson (Istredd), Mecia Simson (Francesca), Meng’er Zhang (Milva), and many more.
Laurence Fishburne And Others Have Joined The Witcher Cast
Seasons 2 and 3 both brought with them some new characters and actors to portray them as our beloved trio moved about the Continent, and Netflix announced that the star of The Matrix films and many other movies and series, Laurence Fishburne, will play an important role in the upcoming season. So, let’s take a closer look at all the confirmed new cast members and who they’ll be playing!
Laurence Fishburne (Regis)
Laurence Fishburne (black-ish, The School for Good and Evil, Contagion) is taking on the role of enigmatic and seasoned “barber-surgeon” Regis in Season 4. The character, who’s a favorite among those who’ve read The Witcher books and played the video games, will be the streaming series introduction to a class of beings known as “higher vampires.” These creatures are extremely rare and have special abilities that regular vamps do not, like being able to look completely human and being undetectable even to Witchers.
Sharlto Copley (Leo Bonhart)
No season of this show is complete without a dreaded new foe or two, and viewers will be treated to yet another one who will likely cause major problems for Ciri. Tudum announced that Sharlto Copley (District 9, Monkey Man, Free Fire) is set to star as renowned bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, who’s known for being extremely professional, but also sadistic and fond of killing Witchers, so everyone is going to need to be on the lookout for this bad guy.
James Purefoy (Skellen)
The star of shows like Rome and The Following, and movies like A Knight’s Tale, James Purefoy is playing noted Nilfgaardian spy and Emhyr’s court advisor, Skellen. Those who’ve read the books or played the games will know that Skellen employed a certain bounty hunter to find Ciri and bring her to his boss, so we’ll probably see him also be a treacherous foe in Season 4.
Danny Woodburn (Zoltan)
Danny Woodburn, known for his work on Seinfeld and in films like Mirror, Mirror and Jingle All the Way, has stepped up to portray a good friend of Geralt’s (Finally! Another good guy), Zoltan. The dwarf is a popular character from the books and games, so we might see him and his traveling companions meet up with Geralt, Jaskier and Milva as they head toward Nilfgaard.
The Witcher Season 4 Story
As we saw by the finale of Season 3, not only are Geralt, Yen, and Ciri split up again, but they now have to forge ahead separately to try to continue keeping the young princess safe. After a heroic season for Geralt, which led to him being seriously injured, he was last seen heading to Nilfgaard. Word had gone out that Emhyr had finally captured Ciri and taken her to his court, though it was actually Teryn that his mage accomplice brought to him, but Geralt and his friends don’t know that.
Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich told Tudum that the White Wolf will, again, see his “boundaries tested” as he becomes attached to yet another found family in his mission to rescue Ciri from Emhyr. She added:
This is the beginning of what [book] fans will know as the Hanza. It’s the group traveling with Geralt for the rest of the books. This becomes his newfound family…He needs help to get Yennefer and Ciri back, and when you need to help, you actually have to give of yourself as well. So, we start to watch the Hanza build and start to see that there are some amazing emotional connections to come there as well.
When he was (just barely) done recuperating from his injuries, he left with Jaskier, and the archer, Milva, to locate his Child of Surprise. He sure will get a surprise when he gets to the palace and realizes the real Ciri’s not even there.
Yen is also attempting to save Ciri, but on her own, as she’s now the leader of Aretuza after Tissaia’s death. Schmidt Hissrich confirmed that the sorceress will have “big choices to make” as she tries to figure out how to lead her fellow mages.
Ciri will also have a new task, now that she will have her own new family of sorts in the Rats, the young group of criminals she found herself thrown together with in the finale. The showrunner said that the princess will be struggling with the choice she’s made “for her future” to become “Falka,” and we’ll find out if she has simply chosen not to use her powers, or if she did “actually magically relinquish” them.
All in all, it sounds like it’ll be a grand ol’ time of continued emotional and physical struggle for our favorite characters!
We'll Find Out More About Vilgefortz And His Plan
Vilgefortz never seemed completely trustworthy to me, though it’s clear that Tissaia and others were fully fooled and had no clue he was working with Nilfgaard for quite some time. The upcoming set of episodes will reveal more about him and his plans, however, like just how many of the events we’ve seen so far have been a part of it. Schmidt Hissrich told Tudum:
More of [the mechanics of his plan] will be revealed in Season 4. The questions that our characters need to be asking [going into] Season 4 [are], ‘Why is he doing this?’ and ‘How is he doing this?’ When did Vilgefortz find Emhyr? Was it recently, when Ciri’s power first started to explode? Because we know that Emhyr came for her in Season 1 and burned down Cintra. Was Vilgefortz involved in that?
She added that there were “breadcrumbs that we have laid out to see how [Vilgefortz and Emhyr] align,” and that “there’s a lot more going on [with] their past — and their future.” Sounds juicy, indeed!
A Plan Is In Place To Explain The New Geralt For Season 4
Fans have been wondering if there will be a story reason given for Geralt’s obviously different appearance in Season 4. While this makes me very worried that something extremely convoluted is on the way, executive producer Tomek Bagiński revealed to Yahoo UK in June 2023 that they plan to employ something “very lore accurate” that’s “very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five” to explain the switch. So, hopefully, we’ll get a better idea of what this might be before too much longer.
Filming Started In April 2024
While a July 2023 Redanian Intelligence report noted that the start of filming had been pushed from September to some time in 2024, without giving a concrete reason why the change had been made, we can all rejoice, because production finally began in mid-April 2024. Tudum made the announcement, and showed a few pictures of the cast, including newcomers Hemsworth, Fishburne and Woodburn, at a table read for one of the episodes.
Our new Geralt did seem thrilled about his gig right after he was announced, and he got to work as soon as he could. Locations manager/production designer Andrew Laws and costume designer Lucinda Wright both spoke to Metro in July 2023, and said that they’d already met with Hemsworth, with Laws noting they’d talked about “preliminary concept ideas for things.” And, early April 2024 saw the star show off just how ripped he’d already gotten to play the White Wolf, so we know he’s committed to doing the best he can for fans.
The Witcher Has Already Been Renewed For Season 5, Which Will Be Its Last
Along with the news that Season 4 was finally filming, it was also announced that the show would return for Season 5, but that will be fans’ final look at The Witcher in live action. As noted above, Hemsworth is set to star in both seasons, and the tale that’s being planned will cover the final three books in author Andrzej Sapkowski’s series. I don’t know about you, but I think this is certainly enough for fans to chew on until we know more about what’s to come!
