Freya Allan Says The Witcher Season 4 Delivers Ciri’s Best Arcs — She Went Back to the Books to Nail Them

The Witcher is about to hit its Baptism of Fire era, and Ciri is right at the center of it. Freya Allan is leaning hard into the books for this stretch, the showrunner is thrilled about it, and yes, Liam Hemsworth swings in as Geralt when season 4 lands on October 30.

Quick catch-up: Ciri has not had a chill day

• Season 1 gave us that first forest reunion with Geralt, the whole Law of Surprise destiny finally cashing in.
• Then came the brutal montage of training at Kaer Morhen, turning raw potential into an actual fighter.
• Now she is separated from her found family and rolling with a new one: the Rats, a scrappy young gang offering protection while the Continent turns its gaze squarely on her.

Politically, Ciri is becoming the prize everyone wants. Personally, she is just trying to survive long enough to decide who she wants to be. If you have read Andrzej Sapkowski, you know exactly why season 4 is a turning point: the show is following the events of Baptism of Fire, which throws down several of Ciri's most defining moments.

Freya Allan went back to the books on purpose

Allan, a longtime fan of the novels, says she dove back into the source to make sure the next two seasons hit the beats readers are waiting for.

"Going into seasons four and five, I felt like I was carrying out some of my favorite Ciri storylines," Allan told GamesRadar+. "So it meant a lot to me. I also think some of these storylines are things that fans have been waiting for for a while, and they're kind of iconic moments in the book for Ciri."

She is not kidding about the homework. Allan said she kept the fans in mind, leaned on the novels more than ever, and basically mapped out every nook and cranny of Ciri's arc so those tentpole scenes land the way they should.

"More than ever, I relied on the source material a lot. I pulled a lot from that. It was really important for me to honor that, and I really had fans in my mind a lot of the time... I really wanted to make sure I knew every nook and cranny of Ciri's story in the books."

On set, she is the one bringing the underlined book

Showrunner and creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich says Allan's confidence and specificity have leveled up since the early days, and you can see it in how she works.

"She's a huge fan of the books, and she is the first one to come up with a dog-eared copy, and it's underlined, and she'll say, 'I love the scene but it's missing this moment, and I really want to figure out how to play this moment,'" Hissrich recalled.

"We wouldn't have seen that from Freya in season one... I think that's probably the best thing to see - a young woman finding her voice and finding that power in this role and in this environment."

That tracks with where the story is heading. Ciri is no longer just the prophecy kid; she is a moving target and a symbol, and Allan sounds ready to swing for those bigger, messier chapters.

When and who

The Witcher season 4 hits Netflix on October 30, with Liam Hemsworth stepping into the role of Geralt. Season 4 draws from Baptism of Fire, and Allan is already thinking about season 5 as part of the same run of Ciri's big-book moments.