In “The Witcher” Season 4, Henry Cavill no longer plays the title character Geralt of Rivia, but passes the witcher’s medallion and silver sword to Liam Hemsworth (“Hunger Games” series). That has been a fact for some time. However, it was and still is unclear how this transition will take place. Will the character just be recast, like Mark Ruffalo once took over as Edward Norton’s Hulk? Or will there be a substantive explanation for Geralt’s changed appearance?
Recently there are increasing indications that a substantive statement will actually be made, mainly because of some statements made by “The Witcher” producer Tomek Baginski. Already at the beginning of the first half of “The Witcher” season 3 at the end of June 2023 Baginski promised a “very, very good plan” and a “very canonical” transition from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth.
Parallel worlds as an explanation?
“I’m not going to go too deep into those ideas because that’s a huge spoiler, but it is very close to the meta-ideas that are an important part of the books, especially in book 5,” says Baginski opposite . “It’s very close to what the books say and I think the transition will be pretty seamless. But at the same time it’s going to be a new Geralt, a new face for this character.”
Baginksi supposedly refers to the fifth part of the Witcher saga, which is called “The Lady from the Lake” in German. In this novel, Ciri travels through different worldsencountering Galahad of the Knights of the Round Table from the legend of Arthur, among other things, and becoming trapped on the homeworld of the Wild Hunt.
This is also supported by Baginski’s new comments to the : According to Baginski, the authors around showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich had come up with a very nice start to season 4. “Anyone who knows the books well also knows that ‘The Witcher’ is not your typical fantasy book. There is more than one world. There is not just one story in these books […] It’s a really huge world that’s very, very complex.
What can we expect in Season 4?
After these comments, several options seem conceivable: The most unlikely is that Liam Hemsworth plays a Geralt from a parallel world, who replaces the well-known Geralt. Because not only are there no references to parallel worlds with different versions of well-known characters in “The Witcher” as in Marvel (“Doctor Strange 2”) or DC (“The Flash”). It would also destroy the previous character’s dynamic if suddenly a new Geralt was looking for Ciri (Freya Allan) or Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) pining for him.
Makes a little more sense after Baginski’s references to “more than one world” the consideration that Season 4’s “The Witcher” is just set on a different world, in which Geralt looks different but all other characters remain the same. Here, too, the problem remains that the witcher multiverse does not actually contain parallel worlds, but is a cosmos of completely different dimensions.
Perhaps Baginski also alludes to one of the storylines from “The Lady from the Lake”: Namely the one in which the lady of the lake, a sorceress named Nimue, studies the legend of Geralt and Ciri with her apprentice Condwiramurs Tilly. This storyline takes place long after the main plot of the books (or series) and could explain why Geralt suddenly looks different.
A bit like “Blood Origin”?
Nimue and Condwiramurs may be arguing over exactly what Geralt looked like back then – a similar instance occurred in The Witcher: Blood Origin spin-off, where the mysterious Seanchai (Minnie Driver) tells the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey) what really happened 1,200 years ago. Or maybe even Seanchai herself will return for Season 4?
We’ll likely find out more in 2024 or 2025 at the latest. The shooting of “The Witcher” season 4 is scheduled for September 2023 – whether it will happen also depends on the current Hollywood strikes.