Geralt Will Not Be the Lead of The Witcher 4

Video Games

The Witcher 4 won’t be about the Witcher. This comes from Doug Cockle, the actor who provides the voice for Geralt of Rivia, the hero of the Witcher video game series. He’s also voiced many other video game characters, including ones in Horizon: Zero Dawn, Soulcalibur VI, and Baldur’s Gate III, and has acted in movies such as The Tailor of Panama (which is great), Reign of Fire, and Captain America: The First Avenger. The next game in the series, which was codenamed Polaris but not given any official title – let’s just call it The Witcher 4 for now – was announced by developer CD Projekt Red in 2022, when it was called the first in “a new saga for the franchise” which will go into active production this year. Cockle spoke to YouTube channel Fall Damage about his work on the series, and he mentioned something interesting about The Witcher 4:

“I can’t say anything about it. What we know is that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don’t know how much, and the game won’t focus on Geralt, so it’s not about him this time. We don’t know who it’s about. I’m excited to find out. I want to know. I have not seen any script yet. I mean, I couldn’t tell you if I did. This is the thing, so I could be lying through my teeth. But I’m not. Or am I?”

The assumption seems to be that The Witcher 4 will focus on Ciri, Geralt’s protectee and sort of ward; according to IGN (I’ve never played the games), The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt ended with Geralt giving Ciri a sword, presumably indicating that she is now a Witcher. And considering the way pretty much every franchise is going these days, that’s probably a safe assumption. Not only do they probably want a female character as the lead in the next series of Witcher games, but they can now say that, technically, Ciri is a Witcher, so the title still makes sense. The problem is that The Witcher didn’t start as a video game; it was a series of fantasy novels and short stories by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski that began in 1986, all of which had Geralt as the protagonist. So, sure, they can technically do it, but they’re heavily breaking with the series that inspired their games.

On the other hand, this development is in keeping with the Netflix TV adaptation that once starred Henry Cavill and will now star one of Chris Hemsworth’s brothers. From the very start, that show sidelined Geralt as much as it could, pushing Yennefer, a sorceress who becomes Geralt’s love interest, into a more prominent role. The first season finale was all about Yennefer and her allies fighting their enemies, with Geralt showing up for five seconds at the very end to remind everyone that the show’s title character was still a thing. Season 2 was even worse in that regard, with Geralt mostly sitting around doing nothing or glowering at Ciri’s training even when he was on screen. Most people assumed this was down to the show’s producers pushing their social politics on the property entrusted to them.

But maybe not; maybe CD Projekt Red wanted them to go in this direction as well because they were planning this big shift with the video games, and they wanted the series to get fans ready to see Geralt in a reduced role. This is the studio who said the upcoming remake of the first Witcher game will fix “bad” and “outdated” aspects of the product that launched their series. Andrzej Sapkowski has said that the producers of the show never listened to his input (or that of their star, Witcher superfan Henry Cavill), so they clearly weren’t concerned with staying true to the franchise’s origins. I’m not sure this is going to work out as well as they want it to. Netflix’s The Witcher received a huge backlash, especially when the producers insulted Henry Cavill for… you know… liking the books. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of those who love the franchise skip The Witcher 4 because it doesn’t star Geralt. And if it bombs hard enough, maybe CD Projekt Red will have to call on the hero they snubbed to save them in the next game.

Let us know what you think of The Witcher 4 benching Geralt in the comments!