Netflix dropped the first trailer for fantasy series The Witcher’s fourth season Saturday evening. This is our first glimpse of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia actually in action. We’ve seen plenty of set photos, but now we get to watch the new monster hunter actually fight a monster – specifically, a wraith.
It sounds like Season 3 will once again follow our heroes on separate journeys. The logline reads: “After the Continent-altering events of Season 3, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri find themselves separated by a raging war and countless enemies. As their paths diverge, and their goals sharpen, they stumble on unexpected allies eager to join their journeys. And if they can accept these found families, they just might have a chance at reuniting for good.”
Here’s the trailer:
Netflix also announced that all eight episodes of Season 4 will drop on October 30th, just in time for Halloween. Toss a coin to your Witcher costume designers.
“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,” previous Witcher star, Henry Cavill, posted to his Instagram account back in 2022 prior to the third season’s release. “In my stead, the fantastic Mr. Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf.”
This was followed by one of the weirdest marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen for a TV show, with Netflix putting up billboards that said “He’s Still Geralt” as advertisements for Season 3, which was split into two parts.
Cavill has big shoes to fill. He was not only the perfect casting choice for Geralt, he was also a huge fan of the books and video games upon which this show is (rather loosely) based. Officially, it’s based on the books only, but everything from the aesthetic to the orchestral score bears the fingerprints of CD Projekt RED’s far superior games.
Still, Hemsworth looks like he’ll do a fine job as the gruff mutant warrior protagonist, even though it will be hard to accept a casting change four seasons into the show. That’s not Hemsworth’s fault, it’s just a pretty massive change especially when the rest of the cast will remain the same. Anya Chalotra (Yennefer of Vengerberg), Freya Allan (Princess Cirilla of Cintra), Joey Batey (Jaskier) will all return for the fourth season. I’m still curious how (or whether) it will be explained in the story.
The bigger problem is with the adaptation itself. Series creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has made numerous changes to the source material, very few of which pleased fans or made much sense. Season 3 was particularly egregious, leading many viewers to speculate that Cavill’s departure was due to creative differences.
I enjoyed the first season, warts and all, but you could already see the cracks forming in Season 2 and the third cemented my souring opinion of the series. This should have been a major hit for Netflix, but viewership dropped by an estimated 48% from the first to third season, an exodus similar to the downward spiral of other big fantasy shows like The Wheel Of Time and Rings Of Power (both on Amazon Prime Video).
It seems unlikely that these trends will reverse. Cavill’s exit didn’t sit well with many already disenchanted fans. I’ll be watching and hoping for the best. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. This is the way.
Season 4 lands on October 30th and will be followed by a fifth and final season. In related Witcher news, the fourth game in the CDPR series is currently in development and features Ciri as the playable protagonist.
