The Witcher Season 4 Must Avoid the Game of Thrones Trap — Here’s How

Season 4 of The Witcher lands today, and you can practically hear Roach groaning under the weight of the baggage. Liam Hemsworth is taking over for Henry Cavill, the fanbase is already on edge, and the whole thing feels dangerously familiar if you still have Game of Thrones Season 8 trauma. The difference this time? The Witcher actually has a finished book series to adapt. Which makes it extra wild that the show keeps acting like the GPS is optional.

The big-picture problem: The roadmap is complete, but the car keeps swerving

Game of Thrones imploded once it outran George R. R. Martin and the showrunners tried to speedrun a thesis-length ending in a few episodes. Daenerys flipped from liberator to war criminal in the span of a weekend, the Night King went poof mid-season, and Martin has said he pushed for something like 10 to 13 seasons (per the Wall Street Journal) before getting overruled.

The Witcher should not have that problem. Andrzej Sapkowski finished his saga years ago. Still, the series has been picking fights with its own fanbase and the source material. Writer Beau DeMayo claimed on Instagram that some writers on the show disliked — even mocked — the books and games (as surfaced by IGN). Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich has also been clear she did not want a room full of Sapkowski obsessives, which is… certainly a choice for a literary adaptation.

Season 3: Best reviews, worst vibes

Here is where the numbers get messy. Season 3 had the best critic scores of the bunch, but Netflix saw a huge audience slide: down 36% from Season 2 and nearly 48% from Season 1 overall. A lot of fans peaced out after a run of invented detours — remember the Voleth Meir demon subplot? — and decisions like killing off Eskel for shock value. The show also gave Yennefer an arc where she loses her magic and betrays Ciri, which is not a thing in the books.

When the series actually followed Sapkowski, it worked. The Thanedd coup sequence? Excellent. It is not complicated: trust the novels, the show sings; riff too far, the audience walks.

For context: Season 1 mixed The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny and clicked with viewers (audience score around 91%, critics 68%). Season 2 pulled from Blood of Elves but bolted on new mythology (audience dipped to 71%, critics jumped to 95%). Season 3 leaned into Blood of Elves and Time of Contempt and drew strong reviews again (critics 94%)… while the audience cratered to 61% and the viewership slid. Cavill announcing his exit during Season 3 didn’t help the mood.

About that recast: Let Hemsworth be Geralt without rewriting him

Replacing Henry Cavill was always going to be like swapping quarterbacks in the fourth quarter. Cavill lived and breathed Geralt — and pushed hard for book accuracy. His parting words still sting a bit:

"If you realize you’re doing the wrong thing, that’s when you stop doing the wrong thing."

Early Season 4 reactions suggest Liam Hemsworth might actually thread the needle. Variety called the handoff mostly seamless. Joey Batey (Jaskier) says Hemsworth arrived fully formed, and Laurence Fishburne went with magnificent (both via GamesRadar). Hissrich told GamesRadar that Hemsworth brings more emotional openness, which makes sense for the later books where Geralt’s tough-guy philosopher routine cracks a little. The trick is giving Liam room to perform without retooling who Geralt is at his core.

Learn from Thrones: Pace the ending like you mean it

Thrones crammed what should have been two seasons into 13 episodes while the showrunners eyed a Star Wars gig that got canned anyway. The Witcher has 16 episodes total to finish out the saga across Seasons 4 and 5, shot back-to-back as one continuous story. That is tight but doable — if the show stops inventing side quests and focuses on the plot that already works.

The good news: The last three books are built to land the plane

Seasons 4 and 5 are adapting Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and Lady of the Lake. That is the meaty stretch with Geralt’s hansa (his mercenary-found-family), Ciri’s brutal arc with the Rats, and the endgame the series has been teasing for years — including the Wild Hunt. Hissrich has said they will not go beyond the books. Good. Now actually stick to them.

It is not heresy to change things in an adaptation. It is a problem when the changes are less interesting than what was already on the page. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings worked because it treated Tolkien like a historical record rather than a sandbox. As Ian McKellen once put it, Jackson’s script was "perhaps the most faithful screenplay ever adapted from a long novel." That respect was the secret sauce.

• Follow the books, for real this time: Season 3’s best stretch (the Thanedd coup) proved fidelity pays off. No more Voleth Meir detours or character assassinations.
• Let Hemsworth own the role without breaking Geralt: Study Cavill’s cadence, sure, but let Liam’s more vulnerable read serve where the later novels take the character.
• Give the story room: You have 16 episodes to adapt three novels. Cut the invented filler, build the arcs, land the beats — especially Ciri’s coming-of-age and Geralt’s makeshift family.
• Win back the audience: The show lost nearly half its viewers from Season 1 to 3, fueled by changes fans hated and Cavill’s exit. Stop treating book and game diehards like a problem; they are free marketing when you respect the text.
• Double down on what worked: Political intrigue, messy relationships, Geralt’s hansa, Ciri’s Rats chapter, the Wild Hunt. The saga already gives you a satisfying ending. Translate it, don’t reinvent it.

Where this is heading

Netflix has already called Season 5 the end, trimming the original plan down to five seasons instead of seven. That sounds a lot like a company reading the room after Cavill’s exit and the Season 3 drop-off. But it is not too late. Sapkowski handed over a complete, crowd-tested finale back in 1999. Just adapt it.

The Witcher Season 4 is streaming now on Netflix worldwide as of October 30, 2025. Whether you’re Team Cavill or ready to give Hemsworth a fair shot, this is the make-or-break stretch. The map is clear. Now it is on the show to follow it.