The Witcher season 4: release date speculation, cast, news and more

The Witcher season 4 is on its way and it'll mark a huge new chapter in the Netflix show's saga. This time, we have a whole new Geralt of Rivia joining the fray as Liam Hemsworth becomes the White Wolf. He takes over the mantle from Henry Cavill, who played the iconic monster hunter in the first three seasons of the Netflix show. We've already had our first glimpse of Hemsworth in the role as well as a whole bunch of teases about how he may be brought in.

As well as this, there have been plenty of filming updates, statements from the rest of the cast, and even some casting news. We've compiled everything you need to know about this below, especially if you're keen for more on the franchise after watching the new movie, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep. Let's get stuck in then with everything we know so far about The Witcher season 4.

The Witcher season 4 release date speculation

Netflix has confirmed that The Witcher season 4 will be released in 2025. However, an exact date for the show has yet to be confirmed by the streaming platform.

Freya Allan bid farewell to her castmates on Instagram in late October, while new lead actor Liam Hemsworth offered some updates on the filming schedule. "I’ve got about three more weeks after this week of shooting;" Hemsworth said in early October 2024, during an interview in Live With Kelly and Mark. "So we've been shooting now about eight months. Three more weeks and then we break for about four months and then come back next year and do another eight months," he added, revealing additional details about the filming schedule for The Witcher season 5.

As both The Witcher season 4 and season 5 were filmed back-to-back as the final two seasons of the Netflix series, it's a bit harder to work out when the first of these will be arriving based on production dates. But given that we're now in the third month of 2025 and there's been no trailer yet, we'd expect it won't arrive until earliest mid-2025.

The Witcher season 4 cast

The Witcher season 4 cast will see the return of most of the major characters, including Ciri (Freya Allan), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Jaskier (Joey Batey).

We also expect to see more of Fringilla (Mimi Ndiweni), Cahir (Eamon Farren), Francesca (Mecia Simson), Triss (Anna Shaffer), Dara (Wilson Mbomio), Istredd (Royce Pierreson), Sabrina Glevissig (Therica Wilson-Read), Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen), Dijkstra (Graham McTavish), and Phillipa (Cassie Clare).

Elsewhere, newcomers to season 3 are also expected back, including Nilfgaardian Emperor Emhyr (Bart Edwards), Radovid (Hugh Skinner), and Milva (Meng'er Zhang).

Then there are The Rats, who were introduced in the season 3 finale. These are: Giselher (Ben Radcliffe), Mistle (Christelle Elwin), Kayleigh (Fabian McCallum), Iskra (Aggy K. Adams), Reef (Juliette Alexandra), and Asse (Connor Crawford).

A new addition, Regis, has also been confirmed for The Witcher season 4. The barber-surgeon will be played by John Wick and The Matrix star Laurence Fishburne.

In April 2024, Netflix confirmed some more fan-favorite characters, too. Sharlto Copley will be playing bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, James Purefoy is spy Skellan, who is part of Emhyr's court, while Danny Woodburn is playing Zoltan, a friend of Geralt's.

There were some big casualties in season 3, which has narrowed down who exactly we'll see back. These include Tissaia (MyAnna Buring), Lydia (Aisha Fabienne Ross), Filavandrel (Tom Canton), Artorius (Terence Maynard), Gallatin (Robbie Amell), and Rience (Sam Woolf).

An actor that won't be returning to The Witcher season 4 is Kim Bodnia, who played Geralt's mentor Vesemir. A spokesperson for the actor issued a statement about his departure in October 2024, saying: "Kim will not return as Vesemir as his current shooting diary didn’t fit in with Netflix’s shooting schedule of The Witcher season 4." It seems the scheduling conflict was due to the filming of Apple TV+ original film F1.

The main change of casting, though, will be Geralt de Rivia, who's being replaced in season 4. Speaking of...

Will Geralt be recast as Liam Hemsworth?

Yes. It was confirmed that Liam Hemsworth, the star of The Hunger Games films (aka the best action movies of all time), will replace Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia.

Hemsworth confirmed his casting through Instagram. In the social post, he wrote: "As a Witcher fan, I’m over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia. Henry Cavill has been an incredible Geralt, and I’m honoured that he’s handing me the reins and allowing me to take up the White Wolf’s blades for the next chapter of his adventure."

"Henry, I’ve been a fan of yours for years and was inspired by what you brought to this beloved character," Hemsworth continued. "I may have some big boots to fill, but I’m truly excited to be stepping into The Witcher world."

There's been some speculation about how this recasting might happen in terms of the story. I mean, Cavill and Hemsworth don't look that similar, right? Well, one of the show's producers implies a potential multiverse.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com, executive producer Tomek Bagiński said: "This is a very little thing that I will tease – people who know the books really deeply also know that this is not a typical fantasy book. It's not just one world. It's not just one story happening in those books, in those stories."

However, this is in direct contradiction to what another producer previously told us about how the show approaches multiverses. "There are no different versions," Declan de Barra told GamesRadar+ back in late 2022. "They may have changed in terms of their character arc and how long they've lived and what they're doing on these other worlds, but it's the same person. It’s not like there are two versions of Jaskier. It’s straight up that there’s one version of Yennefer, one version of everybody." So we'll just have to wait and see on that one...

Bagiński has also shared with other outlets that he's seen Hemsworth in the full Geralt getup too, and he looks "awesome". This means the actor is all set to go, and considering the season is currently filming, we are at the point of no return. Sorry, Cavill fans.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, the actors have been in contact with their new cast mate for some time already. The stars shared they've sent a few emails back and forth but not much else. In June 2023, Jaskier star Joey Batey said: "I've been in contact with him. We've been emailing, we’ve been exchanging our favorite quotes from the books and things like that."

"I don’t think any of us are in the position to advise on playing Geralt, but he’s throwing himself into it. His training regime is insane, and he’s been devouring the books." Batey isn’t the only one either, as Yennefer star Anya Chalotra says they've spoken "through email".

The Witcher season 4 plot

We now have a synopsis for The Witcher season 4, and it sounds very intriguing. Per Neftlix, this reads: "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."

While we don't have any more specific plot details other than that, that doesn't mean we don't have an idea about what's coming up next in the fantasy world.

Thanks to season 3 finale, we know there are plenty of plot details that need to be tied up. First of all, there's The Rats storyline as Ciri has now joined the group of young criminals. We know there's been rumblings of a spin-off show featuring them, but we expect this also to feature in the fourth season.

Just going by the trajectory of the books, The Witcher season 4 will likely deal with the bulk of Baptism of Fire, the third of Andrzej Sapkowski's novels. We won't go into major plot spoilers here, but it revolves around Geralt becoming involved in a new conflict between two warring parties, while Ciri finds her place among The Rats.

Speaking about her character's future to SFX, actor Allan said of why they brought in more stunts for her. "If we are not seeing her do anything yet, and then in season four she is going and joining a gang of killing Rats, it’s not really going to add up," she said. "I wanted it to feel like she started to use that training and put that into real life, although she’s not killing anyone yet, or shouldn’t be." Now she's going by the name Falka too, expect to see a different kind of iteration of her going forward...

Geralt and Yennefer's task is a bit more straightforward, they're going to be trying to find Ciri and protect her from harm. Although Yen will undoubtedly also be busy trying to rebuild the damage done in the wake of the Aretuza bloodbath, and the loss of her mentor Tissaia.

Meanwhile in Redania, Prince Radovid has now become King Radovid (which is probably not good news for Jaskier). Then there's Vilgefortz and Emhyr who think they've managed to bring Ciri home once and for all, but well she looks a little different... We can't wait to see how all of this plays out.

For more on the show, check out our guides to the best Netflix movies and all the upcoming movies heading our way. Or, if you are a fan of The Witcher games, check out our list of the best games like The Witcher 3 to play right now.