The Witcher season 4 is planned to begin filming this March, and as we get closer to that date, more details emerge. We've long heard hints about how The Witcher will incorporate "meta" elements from Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books in order to explain why Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill to much acclaim for the first three seasons, will now be played by Liam Hemsworth, who will take up the mantle in season 4 and beyond. What exactly will those "meta" elements look like?
The sleuths over at reliable Witcher scoop site Redanian Intelligence have unearthed an audition tape for season 4 which gives us a better idea. The scene features some important new characters from The Witcher novels who will make the leap over to the television show, and who set up the eventual endgame for the series. Read on for the details, but be aware that we'll be discussing SPOILERS from The Witcher books as we analyze the audition script.
The Witcher season 4 will reportedly include Nimue
According to RI, the audition tape they gained access to featured two new characters: Stribog and Nimue. The latter of those might ring bells for fantasy nerds, since Nimue is a character from the Arthurian legend, often associated with Merlin. As it goes on, The Witcher becomes something of a multiverse story that incorporates the legend of King Arthur. Get ready for that to become a much more prominent part of the show moving forward.
As for Stribog, he's a wandering storyteller who travels the land trading tales for food and shelter. The scene in question shows Nimue as a child, excitedly asking Stribog for details about "the knight" and "Lady Viola." We're assuming she's referring to Geralt and Yennefer; don't forget, the sorceress has violet eyes. The audition tape video has been taken down, but RI completed a transcription of it before it was expunged from the Internet:
Stribog: “You need to go home, child. Your parents will have my hide.”
Nimue: “But you won’t come back for months!”
Stribog: “Legends like this are ancient history, longer than you’ve been alive. Longer than your parents, your grandparents. Time won’t change that, I promise.”
Child 2: “I know what happened next. There were six smaller beasts and like a warrior the knight slayed them all, his face covered in their..”
Stribog: “No, no, no, no, no, this is a different story entirely!”
Nimue: “Then tell us about Lady Viola! I’m gonna be just like her one day.”
Child 2: “Shut it, Squirt! All anyone cares about are the fights!”
Stribog: “Not true. There’s much more to it than that. If only I had something to mop up this broth.”
Nimue: “While they’re gone, the lady and the knight. They were in love?”
Stribog: “Erm…well…pfft…something like that. They…uh…they went down different paths.”
Nimue: “And then the North attacked and the rebels!”
Stribog: “Do you not have books in this town?”
Nimue: “We couldn’t read them even if we did.”
Stribog: “The South and the rebels attacked the North.”
Nimue: “So the knight fought the rebels? If you’d read the books, you’d know knights don’t fight rebels, they fight big bad beasts.”
Stribog: “Are you telling the story or am I? Right, listen closely. That day the knight fought the most sinister beast that’s ever lived, there was no match to evil that powerful… but that’s all for today. Go home.”
Nimue: “Was the knight able to save his Lady Viola? Did they have the family she dreamed of? Did they all live happily ever after? Oh, don’t go yet Stribog please! Is that the end of the story?”
Stribog: “Oh no no no, that, that’s just the beginning!“
Will Seanchaí appear in The Witcher season 4?
Both Nimue and Stribog are from The Witcher books; Nimue is especially important in the final book of the saga, The Lady of the Lake. During that novel, Nimue is an adult who is still obsessed with finding the truth in legends about Geralt of Rivia, Ciri and Yennefer. Here we're seeing where that obsession started.
The scene recalls one from Baptism of Fire, the third Witcher novel and the book we expect to form the primary basis for season 4. That's when we first meet Nimue and Stribog in a scene exactly like this one.
However, The Witcher television universe has a few elements that weren't present in the book: namely Seanchaí, the shape-shifting storyteller played by Minnie Driver in The Witcher: Blood Origin prequel. Like Stribog, Seanchaí is a wandering storyteller with a penchant for collecting rare tales. Driver said a while back that there have been "speculatory conversations" about the character's future, so it sounds like there's definitely a chance she'll be back at some point. The show might not need two such characters, so perhaps Stribog will be one of the many forms Seanchaí assumes?
Questions, questions! It'll be a while before we have answers; The Witcher season 4 is due to start filming in March, which should put it on track for a 2025 release.
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