The voice actor behind The Witcher franchise’s Geralt of Rivia, Doug Cockle has spoken about CD Projekt RED’s decision to have Ciri as the primary protagonist in The Witcher 4. In an interview with IGN, Cockle spoke about how Ciri being the main protagonist brings some interesting new ideas for the game, calling it “a really good move.”
“I’m really excited,” said Cockle. “I think it’s a really good move. I mean, I always thought that continuing the Saga, but shifting to Ciri would be a really, really interesting move for all kinds of reasons, but mostly because of things that happen in the books, which I don’t want to give away because people, I want people to go read. So yeah, I think it’s really exciting. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done.”
Cockle also declined to reveal more details about how Geralt would affect the story of The Witcher 4, stating that he won’t be a main protagonist. He did go on to reveal that he didn’t know much more about the upcoming title aside from what was shown in the trailer, however.
“Well, we know that Witcher 4 is going to focus on Ciri, so whatever role Geralt has in the game, it won’t be a main protagonist kind of thing,” said Cockle. “But beyond what we know from the trailer, I don’t know anything.”
When asked about whether his speculation about The Witcher 4 before the game’s official announcement got him into any trouble with CD Projekt RED, Cockle stated that he had never left the studio’s good books, and that he got a very light slap on the wrist.
“Yeah, I was never really out of their good books,” he said. “All developers are like this. They want to keep their surprises and I actually didn’t know anything, so I was just making guesses at things and stuff like that. And probably one of their requests was to just to stop guessing, Doug, you might be right. You might not be right. It doesn’t matter if you are talking me, Doug, who plays Geralt, whatever you say is going to be taken as something.”
“So it was a very, very light slap on the wrist. It wasn’t really a big deal. But yeah, we’ve all seen the trailer now, so we know something of what’s coming.”
The fact that the main protagonist of The Witcher 4 would be Ciri was confirmed when the game was first unveiled with a trailer back in December. The trailer showed us Ciri take on a classical Witcher-styled quest on her own, killing a monster that was preying on a nearby village, and unfortunately, having to face the consequences of the evil all humans are seemingly capable of.
CD Projekt RED has also previously confirmed that the role of Ciri’s voice has been recast since the last time we saw the character in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The studio revealed that Ciara Berkeley would be taking over the role of Ciri from Jo Wyatt, who previously voiced the character in The Witcher 3.
While Ciri will be the main protagonist of The Witcher 4, the studio has also confirmed that Geralt will still be appearing in the game. CD Projekt RED confirmed this while also avoiding giving more details in an effort to prevent spoiling his precise role. “You’ll have to wait to learn more for now,” said a CD Projekt RED spokesperson.
