Netflix renews The Witcher for season 5

The third season of The Witcher premieres in June, but Netflix is already planning what coms next. And what comes next, to the dismay of many fans, is that actor Henry Cavill will be out as lead character Geralt of Rivia, to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth. “We’re just about to start filming on season four with Liam Hemsworth and there will be a short gap then we go straight into season five,” casting director Sophie Holland told Deadline.

At this point, I imagine most fans are still upset about Henry Cavill leaving, so it might take folk a while to get excited about the prospect of more seasons ahead. Let’s see how the third one goes.

As for why Cavill is leaving the role after three seasons as the titular monster hunter, Holland pled the fifth. “I probably won’t comment on that one. I’d love to, but I won’t,” she said. “I really look forward to seeing what Liam brings. He has a big fan base. Season four will be a nice mix of new characters and returning faces.”

Will season 5 by the final season of The Witcher?

There are whisperings that season 5 might be the last season of The Witcher, which feels possible.

We’d lay it out like this: there are eight Witcher books written by Andrzej Sapkowski. The first season of the show covered parts of the first two books, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. The second season wrapped up those books and also adapted Blood of Elves (plus added in a bunch of a new stuff no one asked for, but that’s another story). Season 3 is set to adapt Time of Contempt plus parts of the book after that, Baptism of Fire. After that, there are two more books left: The Tower of the Swallow and The Lady of the Lake. I can see seasons 4 and 5 getting to those.

We’ll have a better idea when season 3 premieres on Netflix on June 29. Only the first chunk of episodes will drop then; the second will arrive on July 27.

One episode of The Witcher season 3 will deal entirely with the Rats

Without giving away too much, The Witcher season 3 will introduce us to the Rats, a group of thieves who will play a part in the story going forward. Netflix is making a whole spinoff about them, so they want people to be interested.

To that end, apparently the third season will adapt a whole episode to this crew, as Holland obliquely revealed:

"I had a really lovely opportunity recently with a very special — almost standalone — episode of season four of The Witcher, which is exploring a completely new group of people. We were able to find almost all new talent. We found a boy called Connor Crawford for The Continental, who had all of his scenes with Mel Gibson in the bunker of the hotel, and we were able to put him in this group of kids in The Witcher. He is very special. The whole group is very exciting in terms of talent: Christelle Elwin, Juliette Alexandra, Ben Radcliffe. You meet the characters in season three and then they come into their own in season four."

All the actors she named are part of the Rats, so consider this confirmation.

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h/t NME