The Witcher season 3 has reportedly had a slight drop in viewership in the wake of the announcement that former Superman actor Henry Cavill (Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Justice League) would be departing the main role in the series as Geralt of Rivia. He'll be replaced in season 4 by Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Independence Day: Resurgence).
However, it sounds as if the show will be shifting focus away from Geralt in future seasons and placing Freya Allan's (Gunpowder Milkshake, Into the Badlands) Ciri in the lead role.
"One of the more important things about Ciri is that we will slowly discover that she is the main character of the Witcher saga. Not Geralt, not Yennefer. It's Ciri's story," executive producer Tomek Baginski stated [via Entertainment Weekly].
Speaking to Yahoo!, Baginski also commented on the upcoming fourth season, "This is also the book [Time of Contempt] where Ciri – let’s be blunt about this – becomes the main character of the saga, because this is how it was done in the books, and watching Ciri evolve, and watching Freya evolve as an actress in this season, was incredible, just incredible."
Critics have given mixed reviews to The Witcher season 3, with some praising the show's action sequences, performances, and visual effects while others have criticized the show's pacing, writing, and character development.
Hopefully, the show gets back to a more even keel in season 4. Filming for the next season is expected to begin in 2024 and will adapt the story of The Tower of the Swallow and The Lady of the Lake from the Witcher novels and will explore the concept of the multiverse.
As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri of Cintra into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where she hopes to discover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line – or risk losing each other forever.