Why Season 4 of The Witcher Is Unlikely to Arrive Before 2025

Summary

• Henry Cavill's departure from The Witcher is the main reason fans are still discussing season 3.
• Season 4 probably won't premiere in 2024.
• The show failed to avoid being impacted by WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

It's been nearly three months since the premiere of the second half of The Witcher's season 3, yet the show remains a hot topic for many Netflix subscribers. Arguably, the excitement surrounding the third installment of the streaming service's most popular fantasy drama would have subsided by now if not for the departure of the lead actor, Henry Cavill.

Henry Cavill has portrayed the titular character since the show was first released in 2019, and his turn as Geralt of Rivia, the brave monster-slayer, has arguably been one of the greatest contributions to the show's popularity around the world.

However, the actor decided to exit the project after season 3, reportedly due to creative differences with the showrunners, with Chris Hemsworth taking over in the titular role. The change, while not entirely welcomed by the audience, is nonetheless intriguing. As a result, viewers now can't wait to see season 4, which may not debut until 2024.

Have the Strikes Had Any Effect on the Show?

The Witcher has incredibly complex logistics. Based on the eponymous novel series by renowned Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the show is written and produced in the US, with Lauren Schmidt Hissrich as the primary showrunner, and filmed in the UK, starring British actors. Given its filming location, one might assume that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes would not have affected The Witcher, but they have.

Generally, while the series was renewed for a fourth season in 2021, filming for it never even started before the writers' strike. And since The Witcher is primarily written by American writers, they were unable to work on the script during the WGA strike this year. Fortunately, they can now go back to the writers' room, but there's another hurdle following Cavill's replacement by Chris Hemsworth.

The new actor is a member of the Actors' Guild, so he won't be able to work on the fourth installment of The Witcher until the actors' strike in the US is resolved. Given the stalemate between SAG-AFTRA and the producers' association, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Why The Witcher 4 Isn't on the Horizon?

Ultimately, it will be several months before the script for season 4 of The Witcher is ready and filming can commence. Then, it might be a few additional months before Chris Hemsworth can play the titular character.

Subsequently, the post-production, which includes a significant amount of VFX that the show utilizes, will take several more months. That means that the earliest release window for the fourth installment of The Witcher is the very end of 2024 or early 2025. And that's the most optimistic forecast.