There are "many very valid worries and responses" to Ciri taking the lead in The Witcher 4, but CDPR says "we're not suddenly making up stuff just because we want to"

The Witcher 4 cinematic screenshot showing a closeup of Ciri, protagonist of the new adventure
(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

The Witcher 4 lets snow-haired princess Ciri take the series' protagonist role from her adoptive father Geralt, which some fans are decidedly grumbly about. But, although there are people out there who find it controversial for a beautiful woman to slay moldy, undead monsters, developer CD Projekt Red maintains it's what's best for their story. 

"I think there's many very valid worries and responses," narrative director Philipp Weber tells Eurogamer in a recent interview, "because I think a lot of them come out of passion." Weber also emphasizes that CD Projekt Red is "beholden to the lore, the canon of the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, the three previous Witcher games, and we'd want to take that seriously, and we really want to respect that."

In The Witcher novels, Ciri is trained as a witcher, and is so powerful and prominent, some fans have wondered why she isn't widely considered to be the series' main character. In allowing Ciri to be the main focus of another Witcher adaptation – something The Witcher TV show has already done – The Witcher 4 falls perfectly in line with the narrative laid out by Sapkowski's fantasy books.

"We're not suddenly making up stuff just because we want to," Weber continues. "I could make games about Geralt until the day I die, and I would probably die happy. But I think for me, and I think for all of us [at CD Projekt Red], it's also just really exciting to see all the opportunities that Ciri brings us."

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Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.