Season 4 of Netflix’s The Witcher draws on Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels Baptism of Fire and The Tower of the Swallow, scattering the principal players across a continent fractured by war. The adaptation largely follows Geralt of Rivia (Liam Hemsworth) as he travels with a makeshift band known as the Hansa, while Ciri (Freya Allan) falls in with a ruthless gang called the Rats. For Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), however, the series departs from the books and constructs an original arc.
Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich says the creative team chose not to replicate the book’s storyline that leaves Yennefer as a jade statue for an extended period. Instead, they developed new material that gives the sorceress a distinct, fiery trajectory this season — a reinvention Hissrich describes as bringing an entirely different energy to the character.
In Sapkowski’s narrative, the elven enchantress Francesca Findabair petrifies Yennefer during the battle of Thanedd and later restores her at a gathering of sorceresses. The series reverses that dynamic: Yennefer is the one who turns Francesca (portrayed by Mecia Simson) to stone and then assembles a coalition of magic-users to stand against the traitorous Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), who is relentlessly hunting Ciri.
Anya Chalotra characterizes this iteration of Yennefer as someone who seeks leadership out of trauma and urgency — a queen forged by necessity who believes that wielding power is the way to protect the Continent and the child she cares for.
For Hissrich, the series’ spine remains unchanged: beneath the spectacle of swordplay and monsters, the story is about a fractured family striving to reunite. All of the season’s set pieces and confrontations ultimately serve that central emotional current.
The Witcher season 4 premieres on Netflix on October 30, 2025.
Source: Polygon
