The Witcher season 4 is set to launch a new era for the Netflix adaptation, even as it gears up to close out the mainline series, and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is sharing why they didn’t start from scratch. The next installment in the fantasy series has found itself the target of backlash for the three years after the announcement that Henry Cavill would be departing as the titular protagonist, with Liam Hemsworth being cast to replace him.
The Witcher season 4, one of the final two seasons for the mainline series, sees Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri no longer with one another, as the latter has become embroiled with the criminal gang known as The Rats, while the former is still out to rescue her from the villainous Ehmyr. As the group find themselves confronting their inner demons while they journey through the Continent, they will eventually find themselves crossing paths once again.
In honor of the show’s return, ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley interviewed Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to discuss The Witcher season 4. When asked why the show doesn’t elect to retcon any of the canon from Cavill’s tenure as Geralt to fit Hemsworth’s recasting, the showrunner expressed that she and the writing team felt “our story from season 1 was so important“.
She began by pointing out that one of the key themes of the series has been the importance of “found family“, in which Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer and Jaskier’s relationship sees them “finding their way together“, even as they’re “pulled back apart” and “basically just crawl through hell for several years to find their way together again“.
As such, if The Witcher season 4 elected to “have Geralt as part of a different story“, be it in a retcon or a focus on a different version of the titular character, Hissrich worried “the entire series would break part“, and decided to put their trust in Hemsworth to carry the torch forward. Check out the rest of the showrunner’s comments below:
We had a lot of faith in Liam being able to come in and actually pick up where we left off, and I think it was, yeah, it was a bold choice, and I think it’s one that we’re so happy we made.
To Hissrich’s credit, Netflix’s Witcher franchise has branched out so extensively that starting over with Hemsworth’s recasting would be a massive undertaking for the showrunner and her writers room. In addition to the mainline series, there have been two animated spinoffs and one live-action prequel miniseries, all tied to the canon of Cavill’s show that it would be a troubling continuity timeline to navigate.
Additionally, while audiences have remained divided on all three prior seasons, namely for their faithfulness to Andrzej Sapkowski’s source material, Hissrich’s desire to continue to build on the found family theme in The Witcher season 4 is a promising sign of tapping into one of the most important elements of the books. While Geralt’s monster hunting is undeniably a point of excitement for readers, and those who played the games, his relationships with Yennefer, Ciri and Triss are arguably more impactful to follow.
Beyond the potential canonical issues, though, electing to forge ahead with the story from Cavill’s tenure as Geralt is the best plan for how to carry The Witcher through its final two seasons. This not only allows for some of his most iconic book moments to be explored, but also offers Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra and other stars who have played their characters for multiple years to get a sense of closure in their arcs.
The Witcher season 4 begins streaming on Netflix on October 30.
- Release Date
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December 20, 2019
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Directors
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Stephen Surjik, Charlotte Brändström, Edward Bazalgette, Loni Peristere, Louise Hooper, Bola Ogun, Alex Garcia Lopez, Gandja Monteiro, Sarah O’Gorman
- Writers
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Haily Hall, Clare Higgins, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Jenny Klein, Tania Lotia
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Anya Chalotra
Yennefer of Vengerberg
