The Witcher Showrunner On The Season 4 Deaths That Weren’t In The Books

The release date for the fourth season of Netflix’s The Witcher has come and gone. Many already watched, many alre catching up and now is that period of time when cast and crew give commentary about what went into certain decisions while making this new season.

WARNING: This will contain spoilers from The Witcher Season 4.

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The Witcher showrunner explains those four deaths in Season 4 that didn’t happen in the books

Showrunner Lauren Hissrich recently commented on her Instagram regarding the deaths of Keira Metz, Margarita Laux-Antille, Istredd and Vesemir, all of which didn’t happen in the books.

She starts explaining the first aspect, which is actor availability: “Not every actor is available to us exclusively, so sometimes, they’re already committed to another project when we need them. Schedules in tv are the biggest Tetris game EVER — you’re looking at the schedules of all of your actors, your director, location availability, when sets can be ready, etc. It’s actually a wonder anything gets made! Sometimes, we end up killing (or writing off) a character simply because they’re tied up in something else.“

This first part may or may not refer to Safiyya Ingar’s Keira Metz, who only had one scene in the first episode and was only part of filming for two or three days total. That could also refer to Royce Pierreson’s Istredd, who also had a somewhat limited screentime, but much longer compared to Keira.

Lauren continues addressing Vesemir’s death specifically: “I’ve talked a lot about character death that doesn’t occur in the books, as it relates to Vesemir this season. It’s not about the *audience* shock value — it’s about shock value to the *character.* How a death changes a character’s path or motivation — which we know from real life is quite a force.“

She then comments on Margarita’s death and why it was deemed necessary for the plot: “If we killed characters that Yen has never directly interacted with, for instance, it doesn’t have the same value. It doesn’t push Yen forward in the same way. Killing Margarita is an epic loss for Yen and the Lodge — it changes how Yen behaves for the rest of the episode (and series), it changes the level of vitriol and anger she has. Just how badly she needs Vilgefortz to pay for his crimes — to die.“

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The Lodge of Sorceresses with new members

Besides the explanation of characters’ deaths, Lauren Hissrich confirmed that the Lodge of Sorceresses has new members in the place of Keira and Margarita: dwarven sorceress Ximer and the novice Alaina.

Hissrich commented on their inclusion in the series: “For the Lodge, every character is from the books except two: Ximer and Alaina. Ximer was easy: we wanted to show sorceresses from other parts of the Continent, with different magical skills, which we’d never done. In Alaina, we wanted to give Yen a mirror to when she was a novice, so she could recognize some parts of herself but also so she could see how much she’s grown.“

That makes the Netflix’s version Lodge have the following members: Yennefer, Triss, Philippa, Francesca, Fringilla, Sabrina, Assire, Ida, Ximer and Alaina.

It’ll be a year or so before we see how the Lodge operates and functions in The Witcher, so there’s plenty of time to discuss these things.

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The Witcher Season 4 is has been out since October 30, 2025. Andrzej Sapkowski’s new Witcher book Crossroads of Ravens is available internationally since September 30, 2025. CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 4 is now in full production.

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