As the release of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt quickly approaches, CD Projekt Red is already looking to the future of the series. Since the first Witcher game back in 2007, the series has followed the witcher himself, Geralt of Rivia. Speaking with IGN however, senior writer for the series, Jakub Szamałek stated that with The Witcher 3, the character “has reached the end of his journey.”
Explaining, he said, “I think good stories must have an ending. You cannot extend them indefinitely, and we felt that Geralt has had such an amazing adventure, and his saga is already so long and complex that this seemed like a good point to think about an appropriate finale for the story.” Put simply, “We felt that we owed Geralt a proper goodbye, and decided to part ways with a boom.”
This does not necessarily mean the end of the series however, Szamałek adding, “The Witcher universe is a very big place with a lot of NPCs, a lot of characters, a lot of places we haven’t shown yet,” Szamałek said. “So, we might return to it at some point…but we think that this is a good place to let Geralt enjoy his retirement and try something new.”
Whether or not this ‘something new’ could mean a different type of game entirely is still unclear. A least one other game is known to be in development at CD Projekt Red, Cyberpunk 2077, announced with a teaser trailer back in 2012.
As far as where the Witcher series could go from here, it is worth noting that in the series of books on which the game series is based, Geralt is only one character that is followed. Large amounts of the series instead focus on Ciri, Geralt’s adopted daughter, and Yennefer, his long-time on-again off-again lover. Both characters will be making their full in-game debut in The Witcher 3 and are featured prominently in the trailers already released for the game.
Considering the already announced DLC is set to take place during the course of The Witcher 3, could it be that the end of Geralt’s story is a particularly definitive end? We’ll just have to see when the game releases May 19th. What do you think about these hints about the future of the series? Are you ready to see Geralt’s story end with a ‘boom?’ Let us know in the comments.