Spoiler Warning: This article features spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and minor spoilers for the Witcher book series by Andrzej Sapkowski.
No one beyond CD Projekt Red knows what the next Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, is going to be about. That includes Geralt of Rivia himself, but his voice actor Doug Cockle certainly has some theories.
Speaking to IGN, Cockle made clear he doesn’t have any insider information on the next instalment — which has so far only been teased through a single image showing a Witcher medallion in snow — but shared what he thinks, and hopes, will feature in Polaris.
“Their focus for the game is not going to be Geralt. They’ve said that, so I’m really excited to see what their focus is. I have ideas but that’s all they are,” Cockle said.
“Some people have seen the image of the medallion that has been put out by CD Projekt that looks like a Lynx. They’ve said maybe they’re going back in time to look at some of the origins of the Witcher schools and stuff like that, and maybe they’ll focus on a Witcher from the Lynx School or something. I’m just saying what other people have said.”
The Lynx School isn’t a part of Witcher lore currently, though the Cat School is. That being said, and unlike the Netflix show, Witcher medallions match if they’re of the same school, meaning all cat medallions look the same, all wolf medallions look the same, and so on, meaning the lynx medallion is essentially unprecedented.
A lynx is a cat, of course, so this new medallion could be an offshoot or variation of the previously established school. What’s interesting, and ties into another popular theory mentioned by Cockle, is that Geralt’s ward Ciri wore a cat medallion in The Witcher books. Final spoiler warning for The Witcher 3 and The Witcher book series ahead.
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“The best theory I’ve heard, because it does make sense, is the theory that they’ll focus on Ciri in her adventures in some way, shape, or form,” Cockle said. “Because spoiler alert, in the books, Ciri travels between dimensions and between worlds. It’s one of her powers, and she does a little bit of that in the game. So I think it would be a really exciting thing for Witcher 4 to focus on Ciri’s adventures in some way.
“They kind of set her up for it in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt because you can play as Ciri in certain episodes of the game. So it just feels like if they don’t do that, then I know what The Witcher 5’s going to be about, because it just makes sense. But I have no idea. I have no idea. I’m excited to find out.”
One of The Witcher 3’s endings, which is considered the most canonical due to its story being continued in The Witcher comic book series, also sees Ciri become a Witcher herself. An entry following her adventures would therefore certainly make sense, and fans have been theorising as such for a long time.
Polaris has been a long time coming, with CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński confirming another Witcher game was in development way back in March 2020, and even then five years after The Witcher 3 launched. The developer revealed the teaser image two years later and confirmed it’s being developed in Unreal Engine 5.
Polaris entered pre-production in May 2022, and following some hints from CD Projekt Red, was confirmed to be the first entry in a new Witcher trilogy in October. It’s still a while away, launching in 2025 at the absolute earliest, but close to half of CD Projekt Red is now working on the game.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.