As fans say farewell to Henry Cavill’s Geralt Of Rivia, and preparing for Liam Hemsworth as his replacement in season 4, The Witcher executive producer Tomek Bagiński revealed that it is Freya Allan’s Princess Cirilla who will become the star of the series moving forward.
The majority of show’s third season is adapted from Sapkowski’s The Witcher Saga second book, The Time of Contempt, which chronicles Ciri’s undertaking the journey of coming to terms with her own magic and as an aspiring Witcher.
In a new Netflix making-of special released alongside the second part of The Witcher season 3, as transcribed by Entertainment Weekly, Bagiński announced that season 4 will stray away from Geralt and shift its focus towards Ciri.
“One of the more important things about Ciri is that we will slowly discover that she is the main character of the Witcher saga. Not Geralt, not Yennefer. It’s Ciri’s story,” the executive said.
“We learned she’s powerful. We learned that this power can either turn good or bad, but even Ciri is not really sure who she really is,” Bagiński revealed. “The more she discovers how to control what’s inside of her, the more she asks herself a question. Maybe she is the villain of the story.”
“For a person that young, it is a devastating question to ask because everyone wants to be the hero of their own story,” he added, proposing, “Maybe her real destiny is not to become a Witcher, a savior, somebody who is good. Maybe it’s to become a villain and to actually destroy the world.”
Lauren Hissrich, The Witcher showrunner and executive producer, also commented on the direction season 4 will be taking, explaining, “We’ve seen [Ciri’s] power accidentally kill people before, we saw that as early as season 1. But Geralt has really tried to impress on her that the idea of taking a human life, of making that choice, has huge consequences.”
In October of last year, Cavill took to Instagram to officially announce that he would no longer be returning as Geralt for a fourth season, revealing that Hemsworth would be taking on the role in his stead.
“My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4,” said the actor at the time, revealing, “In my stead, the fantastic Mr Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf.”
Cavill added, “As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men. Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”
In a separate Instagram post, Hemsworth himself announced that he would be replacing Cavill as Geralt.
“As a Witcher fan I’m over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia,” the actor gushed. “Henry Cavill has been an incredible Geralt, and I’m honoured that he’s handing me the reins and allowing me to take up the White Wolf’s blades for the next chapter of his adventure.”
Hemsworth continued, “Henry, I’ve been a fan of yours for years and was inspired by what you brought to this beloved character. I may have some big boots to fill, but I’m truly excited to be stepping into The Witcher world”
Bagiński had already teased how season 4 of the show will address Hemsworth’s replacing of Cavill as Geralt, praising Hissrich and her team’s writing skills in making the transition as seamless as possible.
“Lauren [Schmidt Hissrich, showrunner] and her team – and there are a few really good writers returning to the writers’ room for season 4 – I think they cobbled together a really nice opening which is really true to the books,” he told Radio Times.
Bagiński continued, “This is a very little thing that I will tease – people who know the books really deeply also know that this is not a typical fantasy book. It’s not just one world. It’s not just one story happening in those books, in those stories. It’s a huge, huge world which is very, very complex… I will stop here!”
“We have to be quite careful because how Liam will get incorporated into season four, that’s a huge spoiler and we really don’t want to spoil it,” Bagiński further explained in an interview with Daily Express US, adding, “We don’t really want to destroy the surprise.”
He continued, “I think it’s done really nicely and very, very close to some deeper ideas in the books which were introduced in book five, at the very very end of the saga.”
“Again, we probably don’t have time to go, into philosophically the core ideas behind behind the saga and define the Witcher world, but one of the like big topics in The Witcher world is that every story can be told from many, many POVs – and sometimes those POVs and those versions of the stories are very, very different from what we thought was truth,” the executive producer elaborated.
Bagiński then concluded, ” don’t want to tell anything else anymore, but that I think we found [..] a really smart idea on how to incorporate Liam into this role and I think he will be a great Geralt.”
Interestingly — as season 3 of The Witcher was absolutely rejected by fans — Netflix went into damage control and attempted to lure audiences into watching the show, running an ad campaign that promised Henry Cavill “is still Geralt.”
“Just in case you need a reminder,” wrote the official X account for The Witcher, sharing a handful of pictures that reminded viewers, “Yes. He’s still Geralt in Season 3. The Witcher,” without even mentioning Cavill by name.
Just in case you need a reminder. pic.twitter.com/bvV0hYjymU
— The Witcher (@witchernetflix) July 3, 2023