Doug Cockle, the voice actor behind The Witcher protagonist Geralt, has backed CD Projekt’s decision to focus on Ciri for The Witcher 4.
The Witcher 4, revealed at The Game Awards 2024 with a debut trailer, is the first in a new trilogy of Witcher games set after the events of The Witcher 3. But rather than star Geralt as protagonist, Ciri is the main character this time around.
Speaking exclusively to IGN ahead of the reveal, executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga said Ciri was “the very organic, logical choice.”
“It was always about her, starting from Saga when you read it in the books. She’s an amazing, layered character. And of course, as a protagonist we said goodbye to Geralt previously. So this is a continuation. I guess for all of us it’s like she was meant to be. That was always her.”
Game director Sebastian Kalemba added that because Ciri is younger than Geralt, players will have more freedom to define her character in a way they couldn’t with Geralt. This also affords the developers more space to explore her character.
While both Mitręga and Kalemba acknowledged a potential backlash from some corners of the internet at Ciri’s role as protagonist in The Witcher 4, they insisted Ciri was always going to be the game’s main character.
“There was an intention behind this choice,” Kalemba said. “It was far from roulette. It wasn’t random. I remember we had discussions nine years ago, we were talking about who’s next? The very, very instant answer was Ciri. There are many reasons behind that. We’ve already mentioned a few. But she really deserves a stage and we want players to really experience her story because she has so much to tell, so much to prove. The amount of challenges that are in front of her give us so much amazing energy and fuel to create an epic saga that we had no choice but to go with it. We all felt that this is the way. I believe this is the super right choice.”
Now, speaking to IGN as part of a wider interview on Netflix’s upcoming animated film, The Witcher: Sirens of The Deep, Cockle backed CD Projekt’s decision, even though it sees Geralt take a back seat.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I think it’s a really good move. I mean, I always thought that continuing the Saga, but shifting to Ciri would be a really, really interesting move for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of things that happen in the books, which I don’t want to give away because people, I want people to go read. So yeah, I think it’s really exciting. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done.”
If you’ve watched The Witcher 4’s debut trailer, you’ll have heard a line of dialogue that sounded very much like it was coming from previous protagonist Geralt: “Time for a new saga. See you on the path.”
IGN has confirmed that Geralt is indeed in The Witcher 4, and that is indeed the voice of Cockle. CD Projekt told IGN: “Geralt will appear in the game, but we don’t want to spoil his role precisely. You’ll have to wait to learn more for now.”
So, how can Geralt appear in The Witcher 4 after The witcher 3 left the character in semi-retirement at his vineyard in Toussaint? In an interview with IGN ahead of the reveal of The Witcher 4, CD Projekt franchise and lore designers Cian Maher and Marcin Batylda explained how the already established timeline of events makes it make sense.
“I mean Geralt will probably be around for a long time to the extent that in Season of Storms, the prequel novel that takes place actually before Geralt attends that banquet we mentioned earlier on, there is an epilogue in that book,” Maher explained.
“It takes place in a place called Magpie Forest in 1373, 101 years after The Witcher 3. And in that epilogue there is a certain white-haired witcher hunting a monster who remains unnamed, but who behaves in a certain way and obviously he has white hair. So by which I mean I think we can expect Geralt to be around for a long time. The capacity in which he does is, we’ll see, but I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”
Cockle, though, is keeping his cards close to his chest in terms of the extent of his role on The Witcher 4, even saying he’s still waiting to find out more himself.
“Well, we know that Witcher 4 is going to focus on Ciri, so whatever role Geralt has in the game, it won’t be a main protagonist kind of thing,” he said. “But beyond what we know from the trailer, I don’t know anything.”
IGN asked Cockle if he’s now back in CD Projekt’s good books. It turns out, he never left.
“Yeah, I was never really out of their good books,” he said. “All developers are like this. They want to keep their surprises and I actually didn’t know anything, so I was just making guesses at things and stuff like that. And probably one of their requests was to just to stop guessing, Doug, you might be right. You might not be right. It doesn’t matter if you are talking me, Doug, who plays Geralt, whatever you say is going to be taken as something.
“So it was a very, very light slap on the wrist. It wasn’t really a big deal. But yeah, we’ve all seen the trailer now, so we know something of what’s coming.”
