In more ways than one, the future of the Witcher franchise is exceptionally bright. On the one hand, CD Projekt Red is hard at work preparing for what could realistically be the foundation for the next couple of decades with The Witcher 4 and the proposed trilogy it’ll conceive. Plus, CD Projekt Red’s remake of The Witcher was announced in October 2022, and it’s uncertain yet enticing to imagine if that could possibly lead to a remake of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, much less a full-blown remake of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, though both hypothetical remakes would certainly not be in the near future.
On the other hand, The Witcher’s source material is blossoming further beyond the extrapolations that CD Projekt Red has concocted with its games. Indeed, Andrzej Sapkowski’s latest standalone Witcher novel, titled Crossroads of Ravens, released on November 29, 2024, in Poland and is scheduled to be released on September 30, 2025, with an English translation by David French. So, while this tale has already been told, it’ll be brought to a wider audience this fall. CD Projekt Red has brilliantly followed Sapkowski’s books rather than adapting them, yet Crossroads of Ravens could serve as inspiration if the studio ever wished to revisit the beloved Geralt of Rivia in a lead role.
The Witcher 3: Why You Should Restart in 2025
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has continued to be a standard for RPGs, and the 10-year anniversary is the perfect time to revisit.
The Witcher is Confidently and Justifiably Ciri’s Story
A majority of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s playerbase might’ve been thrilled if CD Projekt Red announced that Geralt would lead The Witcher 4, let alone a brand-new trilogy. However, anyone who’s played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt should surely comprehend the strides that were taken in establishing Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon not only as a second playable character but also a second protagonist with as much—if not more—potential for future development as the Butcher of Blaviken.
If anything, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt can be viewed now as purposefully and explicitly laying the requisite breadcrumbs for the reins of the games’ series being handed from Geralt to Ciri. The Witcher 4 stars Ciri astride Kelpie, and it’ll be exciting to see what the narrative, which hasn’t had any light shed on it thus far, has in store for her. Still, it seems inevitable that Geralt will play a considerable role nonetheless, and, even if CD Projekt Red truly is benching him for the foreseeable future, Crossroads of Ravens gives it an entry point it could evaluate when it needs another era-defining franchise blank slate.
Crossroads of Ravens’ Geralt Prequel Could Be a Great Future Touchstone
Crossroads of Ravens’ Geralt prequel/origin story balances on a knife’s edge. Depending on who’s asked, the premise of a Geralt prequel would either be redundant in the macrocosm of the Witcher series or a fun excuse to dig into lore about a younger Geralt.
Either way, any new Sapkowski novel introducing additional worldbuilding into the epic fantasy franchise can contribute to an already rich vein of inspiration for CD Projekt Red’s games. Ironically, though, with CD Projekt Red shifting its focus wholly to Ciri, something akin to a Geralt prequel game would logically be waiting at least a decade or two. In fact, such an excruciatingly long wait could actually be in CD Projekt Red’s favor, since Geralt’s time away from the sun could make a prequel installment a decent entry point for a new generation of players who may be unfamiliar with his exploits and might’ve never played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or its predecessors.
Of course, CD Projekt Red’s Witcher games are not adaptations of the books but sequels to them; therefore, there’s no reason to believe that a Crossroads of Ravens adaptation or related Geralt prequel would ever come to fruition.
It’s possible that a loose Crossroads of Ravens adaptation could work as a spin-off between mainline trilogy titles, too, but CD Projekt Red has made its roadmap slate relatively clear. It’s fair to assume that it won’t be revisiting Geralt in a prequel capacity for maybe the next 15–20 years, optimistically, if it chooses to at all.
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Publisher(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Franchise
- The Witcher
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Open-World
