The Witcher season 4—not to be confused with the upcoming The Witcher 4 game—is finally here, so we can all cast judgement on Liam Hemsworth's portrayal of our beloved Geralt of Rivia now. You can check out our The Witcher season 4 review if you want to want to know how Hemsworth compares beforehand.
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.
It'll be a while before the new game's out, though, so it's best to ficus on what we have right now: season 4 of Netflix's The Witcher show. Here's what we know about the release date, the cast, the trailers, and the plot for season 4.
The Witcher season 4 release date
The Witcher season 4 is out now. It debuted all eight episodes on Thursday, October 30.
It's also worth noting that season 5 (The Witcher's final season) 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
Latest trailer
Oh hey, we finally get to hear Liam Hemsworth talking as Geralt in this trailer, and it's... different. I'm sure we'll get used to it over the course of the last two seasons, but the snippets we can hear from this trailer do seem a bit jarring when compared to Henry Cavill's grittier vocals. If you want a better look at how Hemsworth is playing Geralt, you can also check out a small teaser showing off a full Geralt scene.
There's a lot more going on in this trailer than just Geralt speaking though, including a glimpse at Laurence Fishburne playing Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, and Danny Woodburn as Zoltan Chivay.
First look trailer
The first trailer for The Witcher season 4 was an extremely short teaser that just gave 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 just from this how he's going to play the role, but he sure is wearing a white wig. At least the latest trailer, above this one, gives us a lot more Hemsworth to scrutinize.
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, but it turns out that Geralt's mentor Vesemir was also recast, and will now be played by Peter Mullan.
Character |
Portrayed by |
|---|---|
Geralt |
Liam Hemsworth |
Yennefer |
Anya Chalotra |
Ciri |
Freya Allan |
Jaskier |
Joey Batey |
Vesemir |
Peter Mullan |
Dijkstra |
Graham McTavish |
Philippa Eilhart |
Cassie Clare |
Vilgefortz |
Mahesh Jadu |
Mistle |
Christelle Elwin |
Milva |
Meng’er Zhang |
Cahir |
Eamon Farren |
Triss |
Anna Shaffer |
Emperor Emhyr |
Bart Edwards |
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:
Character |
Portrayed by |
|---|---|
Regis |
Laurence Fishburne |
Leo Bonhart |
Sharlto Copley |
Stefan Skellen |
James Purefoy |
Zoltan Chivay |
Danny Woodburn |
Percival Schuttenbach |
Linden Porco |
Nimue |
Eve Ridley |
Stribog |
Clive Russell |
Roderick de Wett (the only character who is exclusive to the The Witcher games) |
Jack Myers |
What is the plot of season 4?
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, and season 4.
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
Season 4 recap
Season 4 review: Liam Hemsworth becomes Geralt in time for The Witcher to fully become an ensemble show where he's basically supporting cast
