Beware SPOILERS ahead for The Witcher season 4!
This year, Netflix will debut the fourth season of its monster-hunting fantasy show The Witcher, and new details about what to expect continue to surface. There are a lot of eyes on this season, largely because it will be the first to feature Liam Hemsworth in the lead role as Geralt of Rivia after previous star Henry Cavill stepped down following season 3. But Geralt won't be the only character getting a lot of screentime in season 4; if you've read The Witcher books, you'll know that this is the point in the story where he starts traveling the Continent with his hansa — aka, a fellowship of companions committed to helping him in his quest to find Princess Ciri (Freya Allan).
Reliable Witcher scoop site Redanian Intelligence reports that we'll be seeing not only the members of Geralt's hansa onscreen, but younger versions of them in flashbacks. They've uncovered some interesting new casting news: Aaron Zicman (House of the Dragon, Wicked) will play a younger version of the Nilfgaardian warrior Cahir, while Leanne Ho will play a young Milva, the woodland archer Geralt meets near the end of season 3. Cahir and Milva are played as adults by Eamon Farren and Meng'er Zhang respectively.
Aaron Zicman and Leanne Ho will play young versions of Cahir and Milva in The Witcher S4 pic.twitter.com/laMJthE4r1
— Redanian Intelligence (@RedanianIntel) January 10, 2025
The Witcher including some childhood flashbacks makes sense for season 4
The idea of The Witcher season 4 featuring flashbacks is interesting, and in line with the novels. In the books, we see Milva's father teach her how to use a bow and arrow. So far as I recall the books don't feature any flashbacks to Cahir's childhood, but it doesn't feel out of place. RI theorizes that we might see Cahir with his own father, Ceallach, who was an official at the court of Nilfgaardian emperor Emhyr Var Emreis. I think that's a pretty solid guess.
As for why The Witcher season 4 would include flashbacks, we have to get into some slight spoilers. In the third Witcher novel, Baptism of Fire, Geralt travels the Continent with a band of close allies, called his hansa. We learn more about each of those characters as they do their own individual soul searching. They each have reasons for accompanying Geralt on his quest to find Ciri, and those reasons come back to haunt them in ways that force them to confront the demons of their pasts. So from where I'm sitting, including flashbacks makes perfect sense.
We already saw Milva join up with Geralt and Jaskier at the end of season 3. As for how Cahir comes into the mix, we won't see for certain until season 4 airs...but the ending of The Witcher season 3 was originally planned to show him following Geralt, Milva, and Jaskier, so I'd expect their paths to cross fairly early in the forthcoming season.
The Witcher season 4 does not currently have a release date, but is expected to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2025. Before then, we'll be watching the spinoff anime movie The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which drops on February 11.
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