Witcher 3 devs "knew it from the get go” that they wanted Ciri as protagonist for Witcher 4 back in 2014

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CD Projekt Red’s vision for the next Witcher protagonist has been in place for nearly a decade, and it’s Ciri

The Witcher 4 screenshot showing Ciri getting ready for action in a dank cave
(Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

One of the lead developers behind The Witcher 4 says the team has known Ciri would be the protagonist for over 10 years.

In an interview featured in PC Gamer issue 410, the team behind The Witcher 3 reveals that plans to place Ciri at the forefront of the next saga were in motion as early as 2014. “It was pretty early on we realised that [Blood & Wine] is where it ends, and also pretty early on, we knew that we wanted to work with Ciri later on…even like 2014, it was already an idea floating around the studio that she’s next. In Witcher 3, Geralt is just helping out…he is there for her. So it was pretty clear we want her as the next main person, main character.”

“We knew it from the get-go,” Kalemba says. “I remember a discussion with Badowski. During Blood and Wine, we’d been talking about Ciri, and why it’s a good choice. Eight years, nine years ago, we already had a very solid motivation for why this is important and why this should be the next step for us. We knew it already there. Of course it wasn’t that crystallised, but the big idea was already there, and set in stone.”

While the next Witcher game, often referred to as Polaris, is still deep in development, the creative team’s early clarity about Ciri’s role suggests the studio is building her arc as a centrepiece of a new saga, not just a continuation.

The Witcher’s future, it seems, was decided long before Geralt ever hung up his swords.

Nathan Walters
Nathan Walters
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Nathan Walters originally joined Future in February 2022 as a deals writer and is based in Cardiff, Wales. He has covered topics such as graphics cards, mobile phones, and game consoles for sites like TechRadar, TomsGuide, and Tom’s Hardware. He has also written money-saving advice for multiple publications such as Moneynet, NationalWorld, iPaper, Pick Me Up! And My Weekly. Nathan is an avid video game and tabletop player who loves writing, and in his spare time, you can find him playing D&D, grinding in Guild Wars 2 or writing reviews on his website GameReport.

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