The Witcher season 4: Everything we know about next season so far

It has been almost a full year The Witcher season 3 was released and we still have a while to go before the fourth season arrives, but we do have some good news to share. The Witcher season 4 has started production! That means the show is likely on track for a 2025 release date. Even better is that it will receive a fifth and final season and the two seasons are meant to film back-to-back, so there likely won't be as big of a hiatus between seasons 4 and 5.

As fans know, season 4 also marks a significant casting change with Australian actor Liam Hemsworth stepping in to play Geralt of Rivia after Henry Cavill exited the series at the end of its third season. Netflix has released new photos from the first table read, showing Hemsworth chatting it up with his co-stars Anya Chalotra and Joey Batey. Previously, the cast revealed that Hemsworth has been hard at work training for his role.

Productions designer and locations manager Andrew Laws told Metro UK that Hemsworth visited the studios early on to review some preliminary ideas for the new season. The Hunger Games alum was reportedly “very excited” to start work on the show and based on the new images, it sounds like the cast and crew already love him!

Here’s everything we know about The Witcher season 4 so far!

The Witcher season 4 starts production

As reported above, Netflix has announced that season 4 has officially begun filming.

Now that we know the alleged production/filming schedule for the next season, we can hazard a guess at the release date. I think the fourth season will be on track for a Summer 2025 release timeframe and I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix splits the season into two volumes again like they did for season 3.

Filming for The Witcher season 4 was reportedly supposed to begin in September 2023, which likely would have given us the following season by sometime in the second half of 2024. There are rumors that seasons 4 and 5 will film back-to-back. The good news is that we are at least getting a new animated Witcher movie, Sirens of the Deep, this year, so it won't be a completely Witcher-less 2024.

The Witcher season 4 cast

There will be some changes in the cast when The Witcher returns. Henry Cavill has officially completed his time as Geralt of Rivia. His last episode on the show was The Witcher season 3, episode 8. The next time we see Geralt, he’ll be played by Liam Hemsworth.

Beyond that, there were several notable deaths in season 3, so you shouldn’t expect to see those characters return unless it’s for a vision or flashback sequence.

On January 12, Netflix officially announced that they had cast Emmy-winning actor Laurence Fishburne as the higher vampire Regis, the barber-surgeon of Dillingen. Then in April, Deadline revealed that three more notable roles had been announced!

According to Variety, James Purefoy, who you might recognize from Rome, The Following, Hap and Leonard, and Altered Carbon, has been cast as Stefan Skellen, a spy who is tasked with capturing Ciri. In the books, Skellen forms a band of mercenaries to hunt down the princess and among them is the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, who has also been cast. Sharlto Copley (Monkey Man, Russian Doll) will play Bonhart.

Finally, Seinfeld star Danny Woodburn has been cast as the fan favorite character Zoltan Chivay, a close friend of Geralt's.

Otherwise, most of the main cast will remain the same. Here’s the cast list:

• Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia
• Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg
• Freya Allan as Ciri
• Joey Batey as Jaskier
• Eamon Ferren as Cahir
• Laurence Fishburne as Regis
• James Purefoy as Skellen
• Danny Woodburn as Zoltan
• Sharlto Copley as Leo Bonhart
• Mimî M. Khayisa as Fringilla Vigo
• Anna Shaffer as Triss Merigold
• Royce Pierreson as Istredd
• Therica Wilson-Read as Sabrina Glevissig
• Safiyya Ingar as Keira Metz
• Rochelle Rose as Margarita Laux-Antille
• Michalina Olszańska as Marti Södergren
• Wilson Mbomio as Dara
• Mahesh Jadu as Vilgefortz
• Mecia Simson as Francesca Findabair
• Graham McTavish as Sigismund Dijkstra
• Meng’er Zhang as Milva
• Kim Bodnia as Vesemir
• Cassie Clare as Philippa Eilhart
• Hugh Skinner as King Radovid
• Bart Edwards as Emperor Emhyr
• Frances Pooley as Teryn “False Ciri”
• Lars Mikkelsen as Stregobor
• Christelle Elwin as Mistle
• Cal Watson as Eva
• Fabian McCallum as Kayleigh
• Aggy K. Adams as Iskra
• Connor Crawford as Aske
• Juliette Alexandra as Reef
• Rebecca Hanssen as Queen Meve of Lyria

Beyond the returning cast members, The Witcher season 4 will likely see several new people cast. Redanian Intelligence believes South African actor Sharlto Copley (District 9) has been cast as one of Ciri’s most prominent adversaries, Leo Bonhart. The season 3 mention of Bonhart’s cousin, the formidable bounty hunter and influential businessman Dominik Bombastus Houvenaghel, lends credence to this theory. And now we have confirmation that it's true!

In The Witcher season 3, episode 2, Yennefer is forced to kill one of Houvenaghel’s to protect Ciri after she frees his prisoner. Yennefer tells Ciri that Houvenaghel will want revenge for that. The fact the third season mentioned his name suggested that the writers were setting up his (and Bonhart’s) eventual arrival.

There have been eight episodes in each season of The Witcher so far, so we should anticipate another eight episodes for season 4.

The Witcher season 3 ending recap

If you need a reminder of how The Witcher season 3 ended, here’s where things stand in the finale.

Major spoilers ahead for The Witcher season 3

At the end of the season, Geralt has just left Brokilon Forest with Jaskier and Milva after healing from his fight with Vilgefortz. He plans to hunt down Vilgefortz and Emhyr in Nilfgaard to find Ciri, unaware she was portaled to the Korath desert from Tor Lara and has now fallen in with the criminal gang known as The Rats. Ciri has also started going by Falka.

Elsewhere, Yennefer starts forming the Lodge of Sorceresses after Tissaia’s suicide to make the world safer for Ciri to return to. In Redania, Philippa orchestrated the death of King Vizimir, placing his brother Radovid on the throne.

What will The Witcher season 4 be about?

Here is the official logline for season 4:

"After the shocking, Continent-altering events that close out season three, the new season follows Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri who are faced with traversing the war-ravaged Continent and its many demons apart from each other.  If they can embrace and lead the groups of misfits they find themselves in,  they have a chance of surviving the baptism of fire and finding one another again."

Additionally, creator/showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich released a statement regarding the start of filming for season 4.

"It is with huge pride that we begin shooting our penultimate Season of The Witcher with a stellar cast, including some exciting new additions, led by Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia. We’re thrilled to be able to bring Andrzej Sapkowski’s books to an epic and satisfying conclusion. It wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t push our family of characters to their absolute limit — stay tuned to see how the story ends."

The following season will probably draw from Baptism of Fire and The Tower of the Swallow, the following two books in the series. The third season has already put things in motion from Baptism of Fire, but I could see them also setting up some aspects from The Tower of the Swallow. If the rumors about the show ending in season 5 are true, then we might even see some set-up for events to come in the final novel in the saga, The Lady of the Lake.

Ciri will likely continue being a primary focus in the new season, following her life with The Rats. Geralt’s storyline is more of a traditional adventure as he, Jaskier, and Milva begin their journey to Nilfgaard. In Baptism of Fire, they meet several interesting characters along the way, including a vampire named Regis. The show will also likely cast the dwarf Zoltan Chivay, and Geralt will probably cross paths with Cahir again.

Yennefer’s storyline is a little more complicated since the show has slightly tweaked things. We’ll probably see more of her political dealings with the Lodge of Sorceresses.

In Baptism of Fire, the Lodge forces Yennefer to help them find Ciri for their agenda. Francesca holds Yennefer captive, trapped inside a jade figurine. It’s Fringilla who helps Yennefer to escape. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out and if things are changed in the show adaptation.

In the aforementioned Metro UK piece, Andrew Laws teased that the next season would significantly expand on the lore and world of the Continent:

"The big thing I can share is that in season four our world grows even more. So we begin to explore new parts of the Continent that will be familiar to the fans, but that we haven’t yet seen in our series.So we’re exploring different location opportunities, both in the UK and outside the UK for different parts of the stories. We do know what our season is at this point. We do have scripts, so we are still advancing with what we’re doing in terms of pre-concepting locations and concepts for sets, etc."

Will The Rats be in The Witcher season 4?

The Rats allegedly have their own spinoff in production, but it sounds like Netflix might be turning it into a movie instead of a series. It will probably be a prequel or take place before they meet Ciri, so yes, The Rats will likely feature prominently in the fourth season because they’re important to Ciri’s storyline and were introduced at the end of season 3.

The Witcher has been renewed for a fifth and final season

We previously reported on the rumor that the show had already received a season 5 renewal and now we can confirm that's true! Seasons 4 and 5 are expected to film back-to-back.

It sounds like Netflix has already renewed The Witcher for another season based on a recent interview with casting director Sophie Holland.

Jaskier actor Joey Batey also told Gay Times the following:

"A big part of our conversations were working out, ‘What is the history of LGBTQ+ relationships within this world of dragons and other things?’ And so, that’s an ongoing conversation that I’m so excited to, not only share with the world in season three but with season four and five onwards, find out where Jaskier ends up."

Stay tuned to Netflix Life for more news and updates about The Witcher season 4!