Picture: Netflix
The third season of Netflix’s The Witcher has just ended, leaving a Henry Cavill-sized hole in everyone’s hearts as this was his last season as Geralt of Rivia and the viewers had a very bittersweet feeling watching with that knowledge in advance.
Nevertheless, the show has been renewed for a fourth season with a fifth planned as well, with Liam Hemsworth replacing Henry Cavill as Geralt.
Here’s everything we know about The Witcher Season 4.
How will The Witcher handle the Geralt recast?
Henry Cavill as The Witcher
Henry Cavill’s exit was announced back in October 2022 and it took the entire Witcher fandom by surprise. In the same announcement, Liam Hemsworth was declared as Cavill’s replacement as Geralt of Rivia and since then there were many speculations as to how The Witcher would address that change. One would think that putting Liam Hemsworth in Geralt’s costume and calling it a day would be enough as that would be treating this as any other recast ever (including Sam Woolf replacing Christ Fulton as Rience in Season 3). Still, the people behind The Witcher have other plans.
Speaking to various outlets, executive producer Tomek Baginski declared that the transition from Henry Cavill into Liam Hemsworth will be “flawless” and “very book-accurate”. He further said:
“We have a very, very good plan to introduce our new Geralt and our new vision for Geralt with Liam. Not going deeply into those ideas because this will be a huge spoiler, [but] it’s also very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five.
It’s very lore accurate. It’s very close to what was set out in the books and I think this change will be quite flawless. But at the same time, it will be a new Geralt, it will be a new face for this character and I think it will also be very, very exciting to see.“
In a new interview with Metro, Baginski also addressed how the team behind The Witcher feels about some portion of the audience boycotting the series because of the recast:
“I think wait and see. It’s the only strategy I can take at the moment because we don’t know what will happen in the future. We don’t know how it will work.“
New cast of The Witcher Season 4
Sharlto Copley arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of “Gringo” at Regal L.A. Live on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
Besides the obvious one, Liam Hemsworth, Redanian Intelligence has reported the first new cast member of The Witcher Season 4.
South African actor Sharlto Copley will portray Leo Bonhart, a vicious bounty hunter and one of the most violent villains in the whole Witcher story. Copley’s credits include District 9, Elysium, Chappie, Russian Doll, and more.
RI also reported that Netflix has been looking for everyone’s favorite barber surgeon and vampire, Regis as well as Zoltan Chivay. In the case of Regis, they were hoping to cast someone very famous.
What can we expect from the plot of The Witcher Season 4? Who is returning?
Picture: Netflix
Judging by the final episodes of The Witcher Season 3 and the overall story trajectory of in Andrzej Sapkowski’s books we can tell that the next season of The Witcher will have its focus on three main groups, centering around the show’s three main characters. Geralt will be with his Hansa searching for Ciri, Ciri will be with The Rats and Yennefer will be with the Lodge of Sorceresses.
Geralt is on his way to Nilfgaard with Joey Batey‘s Jaskier and Meng’er Zhang‘s Milva. Joining his team or Hansa throughout Season 4 will be fan-favorites from CDPR’s games Zoltan Chivay and Regis, as well as Eamon Farren‘s Cahir and Angouleme.
Yennefer’s path also seems not too dissimilar to Geralt’s in the sense that by the end of Season 3, she has formed the Lodge of Sorceresses and we expect Yennefer to assemble this team one by one in Season 4. The founding members as of Season 3 include Anya Chalotra‘s Yennefer, Anna Shaffer‘s Triss Merigold, Rochelle Rose‘s Margarita Laux-Antille, Therica Wilson-Read‘s Sabrina Glevissig and Safiyya Ingar‘s Keira Metz.
Picture: Netflix
Others who are expected to join the Lodge are Cassie Clare‘s Philippa Eilhart, who formed and led the Lodge in the books, Mecia Simson‘s Francesca Findabair and Mimi Khayisa‘s Fringilla Vigo. Season 4 may or may not introduce three more: Sheala de Tancarville, Assire var Anahid and Ida Emean.
Ciri’s journey in Season 4 is with The Rats. This gang of teenage criminals consists of Giselher, Mistle, Kayleigh, Iskra, Reef, and Asse. They are played by Ben Radcliffe, Christelle Elwin, Fabian McCallum, Aggy K. Adams, Juliette Alexandra, and Connor Crawford, respectively. It’s unclear how much of the Rats we’ll see in Season 4, but sooner or later, they will run into Sharlto Copley‘s Leo Bonhart.
Before Season 4, we’ll see The Rats as well as Leo Bonhart in their own prequel series called The Rats, which concluded production after two months of filming in South Africa.
Picture: Netflix
Other returning characters should include Bart Edwards as Emhyr var Emreis, Frances Pooley as Fake Ciri, Mahesh Jadu as Vilgefortz, Graham McTavish as Dijkstra and Hugh Skinner as Radovid.
What’s the production status of The Witcher Season 4? How many seasons will there be?
Back in September 2022, Redanian Intelligence reported that Netflix had plans to produce The Witcher Season 4 and Season 5 back to back. The development cycle for both seasons started back in Fall 2022 and by May 2023, the scripts for Season 4 were already in the bag, with Season 5 only having an outline. But fate threw a wrench into Netflix’s plans as the Writers Guild of America called for a strike on May 1, 2023. That meant writing for Season 5 could no longer begin.
Still, even with the WGA strike, Netflix was initially intent on starting production in September 2023, but Redanian Intelligence reports that after SAG-AFTRA called for a strike as well, production plans were delayed until 2024. As of July 2023, The Witcher Season 4 plans to start filming sometime in 2024. As for Season 5, it is even more unclear how will Netflix choose to proceed.
It’s officially unknown how many seasons The Witcher will have in total, but Season 5 seems like a plausible endpoint for the series.
What’s the Netflix release date for The Witcher Season 4
Netflix hasn’t announced any official release dates for The Witcher Season 4, but considering a 2024 filming start, we would expect the new episodes to drop sometime in 2025. In the meantime, we have The Rats live-action prequel and The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime by Studio Mir.
Netflix Synopsis: "As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where they hope to uncover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line – or risk losing each other forever.
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