The Witcher Season 4 is one of the show’s most dramatic yet, as it raises the stakes for the heroes, and sets up the endgame that will come in Season 5. While much of the discourse surrounded Henry Cavill’s exit from the show, with Liam Hemsworth taking over as Geralt of Rivia, there’s plenty of actual plot and lore in the series as well. It remains, as ever, a large ensemble with many spinning plates, as Geralt and Yennefer (separately) search for Ciri, while she runs around with an outlaw group known as the Rats, while her father plans to marry a false version of her. Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Witcher Season 4 and all of the books.
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Those threads begin to coalesce in Season 4’s ending, but there’s still a long way to go. Geralt is now accompanying Queen Meve’s army after the Battle of the Bridge, wherein he played a major role in helping the Lyrian forces defeat the Nilfgardians. Yen has formed the Lodge of Sorceresses, but left to go search across the sea to find Vilgefortz, who still plans to take Ciri’s power for his own and become an unstoppable ruler.
Ciri’s time with the Rats comes to an abrupt, bloody end as they’re killed by bounty hunter Leo Bonhart, who then takes her prisoner. And Emperor Emhyr realizes that Geralt needs to die, sending a large beast to track him down. Much of that is taken directly from the books, though, which gives us some clues as to where things will go in The Witcher Season 5.
What Is The Monster Emhyr Sends After Geralt & What Happens Between Them? (& The Meaning Of Renfri’s Brooch)
Emhyr learns that Ciri’s destiny is effectively split into two: between him, as her biological father, and Geralt, who claimed her as his Child of Surprise. With his plans for Ciri to fulfil the prophecy – i.e. having a child with her, so that their son can rule the world – that obviously will not do, and so the Emperor comes to one dark conclusion: Geralt must die. To do so, he sends a mysterious yet clearly fierce monster after the witcher, using Renfri’s brooch so that it can get his scent and track him down.
Renfri’s brooch being the thing given to the beast to track Geralt brings with it a sense of dramatic irony. The item was a reminder to the witcher to remain neutral and stay out of human affairs; him giving it away in the Season 3 finale represented his abandoning of that principal, in order to find Ciri and destroy those trying to harm her. That decision, however, now threatens to be his own undoing. Giving up the brooch was also the final act of Cavill’s Geralt, and it’s now something that may also define the end of Hemsworth’s version too.
It’s left unclear what this beast is at the time of writing, and there’s no such equivalent of this scene in the books, but we can speculate on some that could be adapted. The way the scene plays out certainly suggests this is a flying creature, and one that is incredibly large and poweful. A dragon that the mage Xarthisius has somehow managed to control could be an option (especially as there’s fire in the cage), or somewhat similarly, a wyvern, or perhaps an archgriffin. It’s also highly possible, though, that this will be a new creation for the show, or something that adapts a name but puts its own spin on things, since hiding the beast suggests something a little more creative than a dragon.
Regardless, it seems as though things are setup for a reunion between Geralt and Emhyr – whom he knew as Duny – in The Witcher Season 5. However, that doesn’t happen until towards the end of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Lady in the Lake, and Season 5 has to cover that book and its predecessor, The Tower of the Swallow, so that meeting may not happen until quite late in the next season. There’s a lot to get through before then, including the machinations of Skellen, who in the book plots heavily against the Emperor.
When Geralt (with Yennefer) eventually does come face to face with Emhyr once more, the Emperor plans to have them executed to prevent them from interrupting his plans to have a child with Ciri, and grants them the option of taking their own lives. However, he eventually has a change of heart, deciding to spare them and let Ciri go. That’s quite the redemption act, and it’s not clear whether The Witcher Season 5 will follow this, or if it’s going to have a different showdown between the characters.
What Geralt Officially Becoming “Of Rivia” Means
Geralt, meanwhile, is fighting not only his own battles, but those of others – specifically, Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia. While Geralt had previously taken the “Of Rivia” moniker because Vesemir had scoffed at his original idea of going by “Geralt Roger Eric du Haute-Bellegarde,” Meve makes it official in The Witcher Season 4’s finale when she knights him. Jaskier says that Geralt has always wanted to be a knight, but this does come with a catch.
As she knights him, Meve says that Geralt must pledge “allegiance to me, and only me, in the days ahead, and all of time.” That prompts a response of “f**k,” from the witcher, who realizes that it’s not entirely a good thing. Geralt has largely stayed out of politics, and his loyalty is to his family, Yennefer and Ciri. But by being brought under the rule of Lyria and Rivia, that complicates things for him, and she will later deny requests for him to leave – meaning he has to become a deserter in order to continue his quest to find Ciri.
Does Ciri Escape From Leo Bonhart?
The bounty hunter Leo Bonhart is one of the biggest and most dangerous new characters in The Witcher Season 4. He’s hired by Skellen to hunt down the Rats and, while officially he’s supposed to bring in Ciri/Falka, he tells him to kill her too. Bonhart, however, has his own ideas. While he does kill the Rats, he instead takes Ciri captive, which leads into the events we’ll likely see in Season 5.
In the books, Bonhart imprisons Ciri for a time, and then forces her to fight in a gladiatorial style arena that’s owned by his cousin, where he learns of her training as a witcher. Later, the bounty hunter takes her to a village where he’s to meet with Skellen (and Rience, though that won’t be happening given he was killed off in Season 3), but a spy named Neratin Ceka (secretly Nilfgard spymaster Vattier de Rideaux in disguise) helps Ciri escape, though not before she’s wounded by Skellen.
This also leads to once of Ciri’s most epic scenes, after being pursued onto a frozen lake. When Rience crashes through the ice, he clings on to the edge… only for Ciri, wearing ice skates, to slice through his fingers, sending him plunging to his death. With Rience out of the picture, and Skellen perhaps too important to wider events to kill here, hopefully the show will still find a way to include it. Following this, Ciri escapes, via the titular Tower of the Swallow, to the world of the Aen Elle elves.
Why Does Vilgefortz Take A Hand, Tongue & Eyes From Other Mages?
One of the creepier moments in The Witcher Season 4 finale is when Vilgefortz punishes mages her fled from the battle with the sorceresses, rather than giving up their lives. He kills them all, but takes a body part from each: a hand, from one who was always good with their hands; a tongue, from one he says was sharp-tongued; and eyes, from one he doesn’t know, but thinks has very striking eyes.
It’s not clear exactly what he’s planning here, but Vilgefortz is known for conducting human experiments, and notably he says that these mages have “a second chance, to be better in death than you ever were in life.” This suggests that he’ll be looking to create something, or someone; it feels a bit different to his vile Ciri-related experiments, since it’s not contained to young girls, but with him noting the eyes will “witness [his] victory,” it might be a more powerful, not-fully-human mage who he’ll have full control over, effectively like a puppet he can use to do his bidding and fight against Yennefer.
Does Yennefer Find Vilgefortz?
Yennefer is last seen in an ocean as she sets out to find and kill Vilgefortz, and the sea is what leads her to him in the book – but it doesn’t all go as planned. She discovers him, but he’s able to take her prisoner – in Season 5, this could be with the help of whatever he plans to create from those body parts. Yen is held captive throughout the remainder of the book and tortured for the location for Ciri; while she doesn’t give this away, she does accidentally reveal Geralt’s location. This will build to one last epic showdown involving Vilgefortz, Yennefer, Geralt, and more in The Witcher Season 5, most likely in its final couple of episodes.
Who Nimue Is & Her Future Role In The Witcher Season 5
Nimue is a name that will be familiar to anyone who’s aware of Arthurian mythology, as she is the Lady of the Lake (which is the title of one of the Witcher books). While she’s a newcomer to the story in Season 4, and her appearances simply bookend the new episodes as part of the framing device with Stribog, she’ll take on greater importance in Season 5. Building on the events of the finale, she does indeed go on to become a mage, and one who encounters Ciri – yes, despite being alive after she has supposedly passed.
At this point in the books, Ciri is attempting to escape from the elves’ world, but that means jumping through not only several others to find the right one, but also jumping through time as well (yes, The Witcher Season 5 may be about to introduce time travel). Nimue plays a crucial role in encountering Ciri, and being the one who is able to conjure a portal for her to return back to the proper time and place.
When Will The Witcher Season 5 Be Released?
The Witcher Season 5 doesn’t yet have a confirmed release date, but its production does offer us some clues as to when we’ll get to see it on Netflix. Filming started in March 2025, and ended in September. That’s pretty similar to Season 4, which wrapped in October 2024, and dropped on Netflix one year later. It’s safe to assume something similar will happen with the fifth season, so a release date around September or October 2026 would be a decent bet, and the first time the show has had just a one-year gap between seasons. That’s important not only because there’s so much setup, but because the series has long since been confirmed to end with Season 5, so at least viewers won’t be waiting too long to see how it all concludes.
The Witcher Season 4 is available to stream on Netflix.
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