Netflix announced today that Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri will return for a fifth season of The Witcher — and that the show’s fifth season will be its last. Season 5 will be filmed back-to-back with season 4, which has just started production.
The announcement came with the first official hints at the plot of season 4, which sees Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri separated and attempting to find one another across a dangerous and conflict-strewn Continent.
“After the shocking, Continent-altering events that close out season three,” says Netflix’s official summary, “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.”
The “baptism of fire” line in Netflix’s announcement seems like a clear Easter egg for fans suggesting season 4 will primarily follow the book Baptism of Fire, which is the fifth book in Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series. One thing that isn’t clear is if season 4 will reach beyond the fifth book, considering the show has three books left to adapt and only two seasons left to cover that ground. However it’s divided between seasons 4 and 5, the show will eventually make it through the events of The Tower of the Swallow and Lady of the Lake to finish out Sapkowski’s series, according to Netflix’s release.
The streaming giant also revealed footage and photos of the production reuniting for the first table read of The Witcher season 4, featuring returning cast members and new addition Liam Hemsworth. Season 4 will be the first season of The Witcher to feature Hemsworth in the role of Geralt, following Henry Cavill’s departure from the series.
We’re heading back to The Continent. The Witcher Season 4 is officially in production. And Season 5 is coming to bring this epic series to a fitting conclusion. pic.twitter.com/mejYbhfhxZ
— Netflix (@netflix) April 18, 2024
Netflix did not announce a release window for either new season, but with production on the two seasons just getting under way, it seems safe to assume we won’t see The Witcher season 4 until 2025.
While a noted Witcher superfan, Cavill stepped away from the series in October 2022, with Hemsworth (The Hunger Games franchise, Independence Day: Resurgence) tapped to replace him. Cavill had just announced his return to the role of Superman, and at the time many assumed that he’d left The Witcher to have time for Warner Bros.’ superhero franchise.
But in December of that year, James Gunn announced that the first Superman film of Warner Bros.’ new plans for DC Comics-based films would focus on a younger Superman not played by Cavill. And in the same week, Cavill announced that he’d entered into a deal with another franchise very close to his heart: the Warhammer 40k universe. Cavill is set to star in and executive produce a Warhammer “cinematic universe” of “film, television, and more.”
