We may still be reeling from the season finale of The Wheel of Time, but don't worry, there's plenty more good fantasy television on the way this year. One of the biggest fantasy shows still to come down the pike in 2025 is The Witcher, which will be releasing its fourth season on Netflix. We don't have an exact release date yet, but unless there's a serious shake-up at Netflix, it will come sometime between now and December 31.
This is an important season for the series, since it will be the first time that the white-haired witcher Geralt of Rivia is played by Liam Hemsworth, after previous Geralt actor Henry Cavill stepped down following season 3. Changing a lead actor is always a challenge, and doubly so when they're as central to the series as Cavill's Geralt. Can The Witcher survive this change?
We shall see. Beyond Hemsworth's Geralt, The Witcher season 4 will introduce a slew of new characters, including Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, a charming barber-surgeon played by The Matrix's Laurence Fishburne. Regis is a fan-favorite character in both the books by Andrzej Sapkowski and the games by CD Projekt Red. It'll be great to have him in the television show at last.
Filming on The Witcher season 4 wrapped back in October 2024. Cameras started rolling on the fifth and final season in March 2025. The Witcher is wasting no time with these final two outings, which hopefully means we won't be waiting too long for the end of the series. But you know fantasy fans: we're not always the most patient bunch. Fishburne has some advice while we wait.
Laurence Fishburne urges fans to "be patient" while The Witcher season 5 is filming
Fishburne is a veteran actor with a busy schedule. Earlier this month he was out on the press trail promoting his movie The Amateur with Rami Malek, and spoke with Collider. Of course, the outlet couldn't resist sneaking in one question about the status of The Witcher.
"[Regarding]The Witcher, folks are going to have to just be patient with us," Fishburne replied. "We're starting Season 5 now. I will start when I leave here today. I go and I start filming."
Since this interview took place at the beginning of April, that means Fishburne started filming on The Witcher around a month into production on the season. That makes sense. Reports surfaced that the first leg of The Witcher season 5, which was mainly shot on location in South Africa, wrapped at the end of March. Those scenes are believed to have been primarily centered around Freya Allan's Ciri, along with at least one scene involving Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg and Anna Shaffer as Triss Merigold. Regis sticks with Geralt throughout the books, so it makes sense Fishburne wouldn't have been involved in that material.
The Witcher adds eight new cast members to final seasons
Fishburne isn't the only new actor joining The Witcher for its final seasons. According to Redanian Intelligence, there are at least eight other newcomers joining for seasons 4 and 5.
For season 4, new cast members include Patrice Naiambana (House of the Dragon) as Lupus and Adam Trussell (Vikings: Bloodlust) as Vifindir. Neither of those names appear in The Witcher books, but they could be code names. Summar Mackenzie, Yolanda Quartey and Farah Ashraf will also be coming on board for season 4; we don't know who they're playing.
And then season 5 will feature the talents of Camilla Beeput (Dune: Prophecy), Laurie Duncan (Warfare) and Liv Andrusier (A Play in a Day). Again, we don't yet know who they're playing.
Laurence Fishburne hasn't heard anything yet about John Wick 5
Another fun tidbit from the Collider interview is when Steven Weintraub asked Fishburne about John Wick 5, the latest installment in the Keanu Reeves assassin thriller franchise which was just announced earlier this month at CinemaCon. Reeves will reprise his role as John Wick, and director Chad Stahelski is of course still at the helm. Fishburne first appeared in the second John Wick movie as the Bowery King, and has reprised the role in each installment since. Now that we know John Wick 5 is happening, his return seems likely.
"I haven't heard from Keanu and Chad about John Wick 5, but I'm sure I will," Fishburne said. If I were a betting man, I'd say Fishburne won't be filming anything on John Wick 5 until later this year at the earliest, after he wraps his scenes as Regis on The Witcher.
We'll have our ear to the ground for any more news about The Witcher seasons 4 and 5. And in the meantime, there's a new Witcher novel from Andrzej Sapkowski on the way later this year as well:
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