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The Witcher season 4—not to be confused with the also upcoming The Witcher 4 game—is likely headed our way this year. Filming on the season has reportedly wrapped, although all we’ve seen of the next leg of Geralt and Ciri’s continent-trotting adventures so far is a quick teaser of new star Liam Hemsworth taking over the white wolf’s wig.
The world of The Witcher has been expanding a lot in the past few years between multiple live action and animated Netflix productions, comic adaptations by Dark Horse, more Witcher games in the works from CD Projekt Red, and even a new addition to the list of Witcher books by original author Andrzej Sapkowski (though so far only in Polish).
It’ll be a while before the new game’s out, though, so let’s look ahead at what’s most imminent: season 4 of Netflix’s The Witcher show. Here’s what we know so far about who’s been cast, the trailers, possible premiere window, and the plot for season 4.
When is the release date for The Witcher season 4?
The premiere date for The Witcher season 4 isn’t known yet, but it seems likely that it will arrive sometime in 2025. What appears to be a commemorative post from Freya Allan, Ciri’s actress, suggests that the season probably finished filming around October 2024 which tracks with the announcement that filming began in spring 2024.
Season 3 of the show wrapped filming near the end of 2022 and then premiered in summer 2023, meaning that a season 4 premiere in 2025 feels pretty likely if it follows a similar timeline. We also know that the final season 5 was shot back-to-back with season 4, according to Netflix, so the wait between the two final seasons will likely be shorter than the two year wait between other seasons.
The Witcher season 4 trailers
The first trailer for The Witcher season 4 is an extremely short teaser that just gives us a look at new lead Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia. Hemsworth doesn’t even get to speak in that teaser, so it’s really hard to tell how he’s going to play the role, but he sure is wearing a white wig.
Who’s been cast in The Witcher season 4?
Season 4 of The Witcher will feature a lot of returning cast including the main trio of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri with bard tagalong Jaskier. The cast of sorcerers, sorceresses, and other political elements will also largely be returning. Of course we’ve long known that Geralt has been recast with Liam Hemsworth. It turns out that Geralt’s mentor Vesemir was also recast, though to whom we don’t know yet.
- Liam Hemsworth – Geralt
- Anya Chalotra – Yennefer
- Freya Allan – Ciri
- Joey Batey – Jaskier
- Graham McTavish – Dijkstra
- Cassie Clare – Philippa Eilhart
- Mahesh Jadu – Vilgefortz
- Christelle Elwin – Mistle
- Meng’er Zhang – Milva
- Eamon Farren – Cahir
- Anna Shaffer – Triss
- Bart Edwards – Emperor Emhyr
As for new characters, the show will be adding in members of upcoming story arcs for both Ciri and Geralt. Here’s the new cast with confirmed roles so far:
- Laurence Fishburne – Regis
- Sharlto Copley – Leo Bonhart
- James Purefoy – Stefan Skellen
- Danny Woodburn – Zoltan Chivay
What will the plot of season 4 be?
According to Netflix, the fourth and fifth seasons of the show will cover the three remaining Witcher books: Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and Lady of the Lake. Season 4 will likely cover through to the ending of The Tower of the Swallow and leave Lady of the Lake for season 5.
“This is the beginning of what fans [of the books] will know as the Hanza. It’s the group traveling with Geralt for the rest of the books. This becomes his newfound family,” explained series showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. “He begins to realize that 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.”
Based on the cast reveals so far, it looks like season 4 will probably smash together the timelines of Baptism of Fire and The Tower of the Swallow. In the books, Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer are all separated during that time as the war between the Nilfgaardian Empire and the northern kingdoms kicks off in earnest.
After being ripped away from Ciri and Yennefer, Geralt spends time establishing a new group of unlikely comrades traversing the front lines of the war as he searches for information on Ciri’s whereabouts. Yennefer is also searching for Ciri, though she gets caught up in establishing the lodge of sorceresses in the aftermath of the political upheaval that Vilgefortz dragged the magical community into. Meanwhile Ciri goes into hiding and takes the alias Falka to journey with a young group of outlaws called The Rats, later going on the run from bounty hunter Leo Bonhart.
The pacing of the novels is frankly weird at the best of times, especially in Baptism of Fire where Geralt’s new group meanders for the majority of the story. I would expect for season 4 to diverge from the books and attempt to give equal time to all three main heroes. I’m speculating, but I’d bet that the show will play with the timeline of Ciri’s sections so that her travels with The Rats don’t get as glossed over and instead overlap more with the confrontations with Bonhart rather than leaving Ciri to tackle that part of the plot solo.
The Witcher series recaps
If you want a more detailed rehash of the story so far, you can find our episode recaps for seasons 1 and 2 below followed by a review of the first half of season 3.
Season 1 recap
- The End’s Beginning
- Four Marks
- Betrayer Moon
- Of Banquets, Bastards, and Burials
- Bottled Appetites
- Rare Species
- Before a Fall
- Much More
Season 2 recap
- A grain of truth
- Kaer Morhen
- What is lost
- Redanian Intelligence
- Turn your back
- Dear friend
- Voleth Meir
- Family
Season 3 recap
Season 3 volume 1 review: An aggressive goodbye to Henry Cavill in a season full of thrills and kills
Kurt Indovina
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