'The Witcher 4' Executive Producer Explains Why CD Projekt Red Chose Ciri As Main Protagonist
At The Game Awards, CD Projekt Red revealed its first trailer for The Witcher 4 and revealed that Ciri would be the game’s main protagonist. Now, The Witcher 4’s Executive Producer Malgorzata Mitręga is explaining why the company made that decision.
Speaking with IGN, Mitręga said that Ciri was “the very organic, logical choice.”
Then echoing the narrative that surrounded The Mandalorian Season 3 with the season supplanting Din Djarin with Bo-Katan as the titular Mandalorian, Mitręga said, “It was always about her, starting from Saga when you read it in the books. She's an amazing, layered character. And of course, as a protagonist we said goodbye to Geralt previously. So this is a continuation. I guess for all of us it’s like she was meant to be. That was always her.”
Game Director Sebastian Kalemba then declared that Ciri is seemingly becoming the titular Witcher of the entire franchise.
He said, “She's actually about to become the Witcher. She's about to actually form her own codex, but on her own terms. The way she actually deals with the monsters, the way she deals with quests, the adventures, it's her own unique way.”
“And also I think that she gives more room to be able to tell different stories here and there,” Kalemba continued. “Of course, we want to give the opportunity for the player to explore more nuance because this is what we do. But she deserves that.”
Kalemba then declared, “There was an intention behind this choice. It was far from roulette. It wasn't random. I remember we had discussions nine years ago, we were talking about who's next? The very, very instant answer was Ciri.”
“There are many reasons behind that. We've already mentioned a few. But she really deserves a stage and we want players to really experience her story because she has so much to tell, so much to prove,” he shared. “The amount of challenges that are in front of her give us so much amazing energy and fuel to create an epic saga that we had no choice but to go with it. We all felt that this is the way. I believe this is the super right choice.”
If you recall, Lucasfilm attempted something similar with The Mandalorian Season 3.
As reported by ScreenRant, the show’s Executive Producer Rick Famuyiwa said at Star Wars Celebration, “I think now with Bo possessing the Darksaber, I know that there was a lot of expectations that might have shifted both in terms of what it meant for Din Djarin, but also for Bo and what does it mean? Who is the Mandalorian at this point? And so I think it could be anyone. And I think that’s what they’re trying to define in many ways, is what does that mean to be Mandalorian?”
As part of the third season of Disney Gallery – Star Wars: The Mandalorian, he asserted that Bo-Katan was The Mandalorian, “Bo in many respects this season is also The Mandalorian. ‘Cause it’s so much about her story, and her journey, and her, sort of, initial ideas of going back and bringing her people back together that got derailed after she lost the Darksaber.”
Jon Favreau would also state, “She earned her stripes in adventures that we’ve all seen. From nobility and she’s been part of Death Watch. She’s existed in many different contexts. And she’s also a character where there’s room for development.”
In a separate interview at Star Wars Celebration, Famuyiwa did hedge, “I think at the end of it, it’s always been about this core relationship with Din Djarin and Grogu. And I think we have just been trying to service that story. That story of this reluctant father figure and his child.”
“And where that adventure has taken us has sort of pushed the show and pushed the boundaries of the show as that relationship has grown and Din Djarin has been on this journey to sort of do right by these decisions he’s made. It sort of forced us and put us in a position of having to make the show bigger and that’s taken us to different places,” he added.
Famuyiwa concluded, “And this season is certainly a big example of that because now it ain’t just one Mando, it’s a lot of Mandos. And there’s a mommy.”
Following these comments from Famuyiwa, Sackhoff completely pivoted telling The Direct that there were no discussions about the show shifting the focus to Bo-Katan from Din Djarin.
She said, “No. I think there’s always going to be a lot of speculation in this fandom. You know, I think it’s one of the reasons why people love this fandom so much.”
“And they love this universe so much that a lot of times it allows just enough ambiguity for people to interpret things the way that they want to interpret them. And out of that there is the ability to have a lot of misinformation get out, or just, you know, wishful thinking,” she added.
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Having Bo-Katan supplant Din Djarin for much of the season did not work. Nielsen data revealed The Mandalorian’s total watch time declined by over 2 billion minutes in the year that season three released. According to Nielsen, the show was the 8th most watched original streaming show in 2023 with 12.3 billion minutes viewed.
As noted by NowItsKnown on X, when the second season debuted back in 2020, the show had over 14.519 billion minutes watched and was the fifth most watched original streaming show of the year.
Making things even worse is that The Walt Disney Company had a total of 150.2 million subscribers to its various Disney+ subscriptions in 2023 while it only had 73.7 million in 2020.
One can also look at how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fared when its attempted to supplant its male heroes with female heroes. It doesn’t work well at all.
The Marvels infamously bombed at the box office with just $199.7 million in total gross. It’s the worst performing film in the MCU ever.
Similarly, Madame Web crashed and burned for Sony earlier this year only grossing $100.2 million. It’s the worst performing film in Sony’s Marvel Universe to-date.
What do you make of this explanation for why they chose Ciri to be the main protagonist for The Witcher 4?
The Witch-her. But seriously, having read all the books and played all three games this isn't the most illogical choice to continue the series but we all know the real reason they chose Ciri as the main character. It was to have another man-jawed girl boss who can do anything a man can do but better.
Either way, it'll be fine. Either they make her character arc awesome, or it socks and at least Geralt's story has a concise stopping point.
Honestly I could live in Witcher 3, a fourth is like a new franchise imo.