“There’s no such thing as right and wrong,” a storyteller reveals, at the opening of the fourth season of Netflix’s The Witcher. He is telling old stories of Geralt of Rivia, the fabled monster-hunter whose long blond locks and iron jaw were first depicted by Henry Cavill, but now, in a strange mid-series twist, belong to Liam Hemsworth. It seems inevitable then – whether it’s right or wrong, good or bad – that all the conversation about this penultimate instalment in the saga will focus on this eye-catching casting decision.
At the heart of The Witcher is its makeshift family: Geralt (Hemsworth) and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), bound together by love and destiny, and their adopted charge, Ciri (Freya Allen), a princess on the run. But the path to domestic bliss never runs smooth. Ciri is lost, renamed Falka, and abandoned to a group of sneak thieves known as the Rats. “Always lost, never found,” she laments to her new friends. “That’s my story.” But the search for her continues apace, and Geralt is assembling a ragtag squad intended upon her recovery. That leaves Yennefer to stare down the evil Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), who is slaughtering Mages and has his eye on Ciri’s Elder Blood, the historical magic that runs in her veins and makes her so powerful – and wanted.
