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A few days ago, Netflix officially kicked off production of The Witcher Season 4 with a short behind-the-scenes video. In the video, the cast and key crew members gathered for a table read of the Season 4 scripts. This was the first time we have seen Liam Hemsworth (Geralt) together with fellow stars Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), Freya Allan (Ciri), and Joey Batey (Jaskier).
Hemsworth, of course, is stepping into the shoes of Henry Cavill, who chose to leave the franchise after Season 3. How the show will handle the transition from Cavill to Hemsworth has become the subject of many debates in the Witcher fandom, especially after producer Tomek Baginski repeatedly teased the writers’ plan. Most fans seem to agree that no in-universe explanation for the recasting is required, but Netflix chose a different path.
Following various statements from Baginski, we have a pretty good idea how this transition will be handled, and it will all revolve around a new character. Nimue will be portrayed by young actress Eve Ridley. We can see her alongside the other cast in the table read video.
Those who have read Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher novels may remember Nimue as the Lady of the Lake, a renowned sorceress born many decades after Geralt first met Yennefer and Ciri. In Nimue’s time, The Witcher‘s main characters have become legendary, and their stories have spread across the Continent. Many versions of their story exist, with many different interpretations, different accounts of the events, and even some differing descriptions of the characters’ appearance.
As has been speculated extensively, and is supported by Baginski’s various claims, this is how the show will explain Season 4’s new Geralt. There are many versions of this story, and we have seen a version where Geralt looks like Henry Cavill. In Season 4 we will be introduced to a new account of the tale according to which Geralt looks like Liam Hemsworth. The show may or may not play around with other possible changes in the different versions of the story, as it is presented to the young Nimue.
The tales of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri will be told to Nimue by another character whose casting was revealed in the table read: Stribog. Portrayed by Game of Thrones veteran Clive Russell, Stribog is a wandering storyteller. In the books, Stribog appears in the brief opening scene of the final chapter of Baptism of Fire, the third novel in the Witcher Saga. This novel will serve as the source material for Season 4 alongside the next book, Tower of the Swallow.
The scene in the books features Stribog gathering a group of children, including Nimue, to tell the stories of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri. This is a crucial moment for Nimue, as she would later develop an obsession with the legend of the witcher, sorceress and their adopted child, investigating the many different versions of their story in an attempt to discover what really happened.
But it seems that this older version of Nimue will likely not appear in Season 4, at least going by the character’s name in the table read, which was just “Nimue” rather than “Young Nimue”. We may yet see an older Nimue in Season 5 as we did in Lady of the Lake, the final novel in the saga.
For Season 4, it is all but confirmed Nimue will appear in the season’s opening scene alongside Stribog and this scene will be used to reintroduce Geralt. It’s possible that the show will take it a step further and revisit Nimue and Stribog throughout the season as some sort of framing narrative but, most likely, it will just be the opening scene. Speaking of which, we have a transcription of an audition tabe for Stribog. Read it here.
Now that production is underway, Redanian Intelligence will be back to work providing you behind-the-scenes details from filming, photos of the cast and crew, and new unrevealed castings. Expect to hear much more about Season 4 in the coming months.
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