Summary
- Geralt will still appear in The Witcher 4, but players will control Ciri, his adopted daughter.
- The game’s director confirmed a planned trilogy focused on Ciri, with Geralt making his presence known.
- Ciri’s selection as the protagonist hints towards a new era for the Witcher series.
The Witcher 4 will still feature longtime series protagonist Geralt of Rivia, even if he’s going to be stepping out of the spotlight as the game’s main character. While The Witcher 4 will place players in the role of Geralt’s adopted daughter Ciri, fans should expect to see him again, at least in a minor role, over the course of the game.
CD Projekt Red confirmed Ciri as The Witcher 4‘s protagonist in a six-minute-long cinematic trailer shown at The Game Awards 2024. While the trailer is dedicated to showing Ciri coming into her own as a monster-slayer and champion of justice, the first minute throws players a curve ball with an opening narration of a father who’s proud of his daughter embracing her destiny. The narrator’s identity quickly becomes ambiguous, however, thanks to the appearance of another father-daughter duo, leaving fans to wonder whether Geralt will even appear in the game.
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While Ciri is stepping into the game’s central role for the first time in the video game series, game director Sebastian Kalemba has confirmed that players will still see Geralt, though he wouldn’t explain how large a role the Witcher series’ original protagonist will play. In an interview with PC Gamer, Kalemba indicated that not just The Witcher 4, but an entire second planned trilogy, will focus on Ciri, though Geralt will still make himself known in one way or another. “I can’t tell you more, but I think the promise is enough,” he noted in a reassuring statement to fans worried about the future of Geralt in the Witcher franchise.
Geralt Will Still Play a Role in The Witcher 4
The plans to make Ciri head up The Witcher 4, and apparently at least two more games to follow it, are nothing new for CD Projekt Red. In the same interview, Kalemba noted that the development team has been planning Ciri’s ascension for more than a decade. The younger Witcher was already playable in portions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and there are some things Ciri can do that Geralt can’t, like lead a country and wield and control high-level magic. Her status and abilities seem to be leading the game series into a new era, and Kelmba called the next installment in the series “a natural path for her to prove herself” as she begins leading players on a new journey.
The casting of Ciri in the leading role gives some clarity to which of the branching endings in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is canon. That game includes multiple possible outcomes that affect the lives and status of both Ciri and Geralt, as well as determining the winner of the War for the North and the ruler of Skellige. Ciri has three possible fates, with one implying that she died to the White Frost and another crowning her as Empress of Nilfgaard. The recently released footage indicates that neither of these endings is canon, and it’s much more likely that she faked her death and split from Geralt to become a Witcher.
The Witcher IV is a single-player, open-world RPG from CD PROJEKT RED. At the start of a new saga, players take on the role of Ciri, a professional monster slayer, and embark on a journey through a brutal dark-fantasy world. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, it aims to be the most immersive and ambitious open-world Witcher game to date.