Lore has always been a tricky subject for fans when it comes to adaptations: if you stick too closely to the original text, you end up with a scaled-down version of what you already love; Too loose an adaptation and suddenly your beloved series is no longer recognizable. When it comes to the Netflix TV series, I'm pretty open about the fact that Witcher fans have it harder than most when it comes to their franchise being tainted by bad decisions. So it's no surprise that CD Projekt Red revealed the first trailer for The Witcher 4in which Ciri is the main character and appears to be a full-blown sorcerer, some fans (albeit a minority) met it with skepticism. However, with three Witcher games already under their belt, CD Projekt Red has earned the benefit of the doubt.
The most understandable concern among these fans seems to be how The Witcher 4 fits into the world and canon of Andrzej Sapkowski's books. For example, Ciri, after the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Huntwould have been older than normal to undergo the Trial of the Grasses, and in the books she had much of her magic taken away when she saved Ihuarraquax – but in the trailer she uses magic freely. What's confusing about these fans' concerns, however, is how little they already seem aware of the relationship between CD Projekt Red's games and the Witcher canon. It's not necessarily that the two grew apart, but rather that they were never close to begin with.
The Witcher games have never strictly followed the books they are based on. Instead, they were always more concerned with committing to the spirit and themes of Sapkowski's series than with breathing virtual life into his words. And as a fan of Sapkowski's books, I think this is one of the greatest assets of CD Projekt Red's series of games. The rich complexity and detail of the world and characters Sapkowski created always felt like they could be expanded far beyond the pages of his novels and short stories, and in the capable hands of CDPR we were able to see that expansion of the world .
That's part of what matters The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt probably the best entry ever in the entire Witcher series. This game jumps beyond the established canon of Sapkowski's novels and imagines a slightly extra-canonical story set several years after the end of the book's story. It is an expansion and continuation of the stories of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri, but it captures the essence of their characters and the entire world of The Witcher, as well as everything in the history of the series.
Through The Witcher 3Geralt's mission to find Ciri and then rescue her brings him into contact with the strangest inhabitants of his world. And while the game gives you a choice in how to deal with them, CDPR's writing does a great job of keeping you on your toes as Geralt's quests, despite his best intentions, always lead to unexpected and often tragic outcomes – so they're thematically consistent with the The best of Sapkowski's works are short stories. In other words, it's everything the Netflix series failed at; So far, the series' creative team has pretty much adopted the plots of Sapkowski's novels, but seems completely uninterested in its themes.
But what's even more confusing for the self-proclaimed fans of The Witcher 3 who are now expressing skepticism about Ciri's development The Witcher 4 is that her transformation was introduced for the first time Wild Hunt. Depending on the choices players made during the game, Ciri could either end The Witcher 3 dead, as Queen of Nilfgaard or on the way to becoming a sorcerer. The question is how she got from that path to where we see her The Witcher 4The cinematic trailer seems less like a plot hole and more like that exact plot of The Witcher 4 himselfsomething that was confirmed Friday on X by CDPR studio head Adam Badowski.
And the truth is that as a fan of Ciri and Sapkowski's books, I am happy that CD Projekt Red is committed to continuing their story and giving it a narrative future. Given the studio's track record in skillfully expanding Sapkowski's characters and world, it's hard to imagine she's in better hands – including those of her original author. The only real downside is that it might be a few years before we actually see her story unfold.
