Back in October 2024, game studio CD Projekt Red revealed that they were working on a new Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, which would be a whole new game in the franchise. Last night at The Game Awards, we finally learned what it was. The Witcher IV is coming and we couldn’t be more excited.

The first thing that fans of The Witcher series, whether this be game, book, or TV series, will notice is that Geralt of Rivia is no longer the protagonist. Instead, his adoptive daughter Cirilla of Cintra, better known simply as “Ciri” will assume the mantle of the titular Witcher. This is interesting for numerous reasons, lore-wise. For one, women can’t become Witchers in the world of author Andrzej Sapkowski. For another, the Trial of the Grasses, the process in which young boys become Witchers, was lost to the ages (as seen in the Netflix animated film Nightmare of the Wolf) which prevented new Witchers from being created. So we’ve only really known about the last remaining Witchers in the books and games and now we’re entering a whole new era of possibility.

When asked by IGN why they went with Ciri as the main protagonist for The Witcher IV, the game’s executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga explained. “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.”

So how is Ciri, voiced now by Ciara Berkeley, a Witcher then? She’s a pretty unique character in this universe, as she has the “Elder Blood” within her which gives her a bunch of unique and magical powers, much more powerful than Geralt’s simple “signs”. My guess is that one of the other Witcher schools, or perhaps a completely new school as teased by the medallion in the snow during the initial tease years ago, found a way to recreate the formula and that Ciri’s Elder Blood had a part to play in that.

A lot of familiar stables were shown in the six-minute reveal trailers. Ciri now has two swords as opposed to one; one for humans and a silver one for monsters. She can also take Witcher potions, which confirms she’s taken the Trial, as her eyes change after drinking the otherwise toxic potion. There’s a monster hunt as well and the revelation that just because the obvious choice seems like the right choice, doesn’t make it so. The world of The Witcher is one that’s morally dubious, and despite slaying the monster in the trailer, the woman featured in the ritual ceremony (which we know nothing about), was ultimately killed by the village, making us wonder if slaying said monster was really the “right” path. The studio has also emphasized that The Witcher IV won’t break any canon, which is interesting considering the previous game has numerous endings dictated by player choice.

The studio has also said that they’ve learned quite a bit from their time on Cyberpunk 2077, emphasizing that the studio will only release the game once it’s completed to avoid a repeat of that game’s disastrous launch. Likewise, Cyberpunk’s more open-ended gameplay will carry over to The Witcher IV, allowing much more freedom of choice for playstyles and possibly even player-specific builds for Ciri. This is likely due to Ciri being relatively new at being a Witcher, compared to the others, and is still working out her style, even if many years have passed since The Witcher 3. Unlike Geralt of Rivia’s neutral stance on world events, Ciri will be much more influenced by the world around her and will have opinions on events transpiring around her. This makes sense, considering her past and her uniqueness, but also helps separate her from Geralt. Oh-and just because he’s not the main character doesn’t mean we won’t get it: Geralt is confirmed to be in The Witcher IV.

The Witcher IV is set to be the first game in a new trilogy, but we’ll have to wait a long time for news on later games, as this one currently does not have a release window, nor do we technically know which platforms it’ll release on. But we do know that CDPR has abandoned using its own RED Engine in favour of using Unreal Engine 5 for the game, so we’ll likely see some outstanding visuals in the game once it releases.