By Filming of The Witcher Season 4 is well underway, with about half of its eight episodes already filmed. Stars Liam Hemsworth (Geralt), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), and Freya Allan (Ciri) were all spotted on set in their new Season 4 costumes, joined by new and returning cast members. But Netflix is already looking ahead, beyond Season 4, to the show’s conclusion in Season 5.
The Witcher Season 5 is already written
We first reported that Netflix was considering greenlighting and filming Seasons 4 and 5 back-to-back to wrap up the show back in 2022, and evidence of this plan continued to mount over the next two years. Finally, Season 5 was announced officially alongside confirmation that it would be the last season in a video celebrating the beginning of Season 4’s filming in April of 2024.
As we have been told by our sources, writing for The Witcher Season 5 is now complete. There will be various tweaks once filming begins and edits need to be made due to different reasons, but it’s mostly over. Season 5 is now done.
As the seasons were written more or less back-to-back, Writers’ Strike notwithstanding, the writer’s room of Season 5 was the same as Season 4. Leading the team is showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who wrote Witcher episodes 101, 108, 208, and the upcoming 401.
Filling out the team are Mike Ostrowski (107, 207, 301, 308, and 408), Clare Higgins (203, 305, and 407), Matthew D’Ambrosio (206, 307, and 405), Javier Grillo-Marxuach (306, and 406), Troy Dangerfield (308, and 404), Rae Benjamin (304, 403), and Tania Lotia (302, 402).
The episodes each writer will lead in Season 5 are not yet known, although we would venture a guess that showrunner Lauren Hissrich will take the series finale.
Will The Witcher’s ending follow the books?
Showrunner Lauren Hissrich has claimed on multiple occasions since the days of Season 1 that the show’s ending will follow the books and not go beyond them. This doesn’t mean that the writers will not add any original scenes or take certain characters in a different direction as they have in the past, but it does mean the trajectory of the story as a whole will remain similar to the books.
“I don’t feel the need to go beyond the existing books,” the showrunner said in a 2020 interview held by Steve Varley which is available on YouTube. “They are great source material, Andrzej Sapkowski has written all of them, there is a natural ending to them and I feel like as long as we stick that landing, which is the ending of the books, then we’ll be good.”
Though Season 5 is ready to enter pre-production in the coming months, there is not yet any confirmation on the exact date when the final season will start filming. There are some logistical and scheduling challenges that Netflix will need to overcome to start Season 5 so quickly after Season 4. We will have to wait and see as Season 4 will be filming until late October/early November 2024. Season 5 could start right after or after the Christmas break in January 2025/
In the meantime, we will continue to follow the filming of Season 4.
The Witcher Season 4 is in production for a 2025 release. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book has a planned Winter 2024/2025 release with The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep anime set for a late 2024 release as well.
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