"You can't just have Geralt for every single game" says his voice actor, and if you think The Witcher 4 making Ciri the protagonist is "woke," then "read the damn books"

The Witcher 4 screenshot showing the stunning Unreal Engine 5 fidelity — (Image credit: CD Projekt RED)

The Witcher 4 was officially announced at the 2024 Game Awards, and it kicked the hornet's nest by daring to have Ciri star as its protagonist. Geralt's voice actor, Doug Cockle, strongly defends the choice.

"It's a cool character from the Witcher, and they're gonna focus on that character," he says during a Fall Damage video, responding to a post regarding people calling Ciri's newfound spotlight "woke."

"I think that's awesome. You can't just have Geralt for every single game for The Witcher ad nauseam through eternity."

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For as much as we all love Geralt, he's got a point. Sometimes, you just need to retire a character when there's nothing left to do with them. Uncharted put Nathan Drake into retirement so we could focus on Chloe and Nadine in The Lost Legacy, and they were a breath of fresh air.

"We've seen the end of Geralt's journey," Cockle continues. "Blood and Wine was supposed to wrap up Geralt's journey."

To avoid any doubt on where he stands, he continues: "Celebrate Ciri, I celebrate her being the protagonist. So all you people who think it's 'woke' [blows raspberry]... If you read the books, then you understand why CD Projekt went down this avenue.

"There's a whole rich world of stuff to explore with Ciri, that they didn't do when they put her into Witcher 3, because the story was about Geralt. But she hints at it. If you think it's woke, read the damn books – they're good, first of all. And secondly, you won't think it's so woke anymore."

A lot of people – myself included, when I first played The Witcher 3 – didn't know the games were based on a popular series of books. Everything CD Projekt Red does is rooted in it.

As the years have gone by, the books have become more about Ciri. Geralt may be a witcher, but he's getting old, so passing the torch was inevitable. It's either that, or no more Witcher.

There's no release date for 4 just yet, so for now, try some of the best games like The Witcher 3 to satiate all your monster-slaying RPG needs.

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I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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