Witcher 4 trailer reveals Ciri as its playable progatonist

Ana Diaz (she/her) is a culture writer at Polygon, covering internet culture, fandom, and video games. Her work has previously appeared at NPR, Wired, and The Verge.

CD Projekt Red released a new trailer for the next Witcher game, codenamed “Polaris”, at The Game Awards on Thursday night. The game will be called The Witcher 4 and it will feature Ciri as the protagonist of a brand new story.

CD Projekt Red announced the start of development on the next Witcher game in the spring of 2022. News about it has been sparse since then, but fans of the series have plenty to look forward to in the coming years. Four Witcher games — in addition to Polaris — have been announced for development. Two of those games, currently codenamed “Sirius” and “Canis Majoris,” are being developed by The Flame in the Flood developer The Molasses Flood and The Thaumaturge developer Fool’s Theory, respectively.

This Witcher game will be the start of a new trilogy of games that explores a new story. The Witcher 4 will feature Ciri, the princess of Cintra and daughter of Pavetta, as the playable protagonist and monster hunter. The trailer showed an encounter where she slays and takes the head of a massive snake-like creature in a dark woodsy setting.

The Witcher games are based on the series of fantasy novels and short stories by the Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski. Over time, the series has become a foundation pillar of work for CD Projekt Red and action-RPG fans across the globe. The series began in 2007 with The Witcher and has had three mainline games, two expansions, and seven spin-off titles. Its protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, has also appeared in other popular games, like Fortnite and Soulcalibur 6, and Netflix has released a live-action series inspired by the books.