The Witcher Season 3 Just Set Up a Major Character’s Destiny

This article contains spoilers for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The latest trailer for season 3 of The Witcher shows us that Ciri’s (Freya Allan) Witcher training from season 2 has definitely paid off. In the trailer, we see Ciri holding her own while fighting monsters, humans, and elves, alongside Geralt (Henry Cavill) and gaining control over her magical abilities with the help of Yennefer (Anya Chalotra). With the Wild Hunt and most of The Continent after Ciri and her powers by the end of season 2, it makes sense that she would continue to learn how to defend herself and double down on her desire to become a Witcher this season. But for fans of the video games, especially The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, seeing Ciri call herself a Witcher and continue down this path is more than just a logical next-step for her character, it’s a hint at her potential future.

Even though the Netflix series has been adapting the Witcher novels by Andrzej Sapkowski directly rather than adapting the story of the popular video game series (which also use the novels as source material), this trailer teases a potential arc for Ciri that fans of the games are likely familiar with. In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the player spends most of the time controlling Geralt as he traverses the Continent to find Ciri before the Wild Hunt does. Along the way, Geralt is also tasked with bringing Ciri back to her father, Nilfgaardian Emperor Emhyr, who wants her to take over the throne and become Empress.

The player is able to play as Ciri occasionally in The Witcher 3, but her future is mostly determined by choices the player makes as Geralt in interactions with her. In the game, Ciri has three possible fates – she can die during her battle with the White Frost (an omen of the prophecy of Ithlinne), stay with her father and become Empress, or remain a Witcher full-time. 

While Ciri dying in battle seems an unlikely path for the show to take this season, The Witcher season 3 could still see her having to choose between some version of the latter two futures. The season 2 finale revealed that Ciri’s father, long thought to be dead, is in fact the foreboding Emperor Emhyr whose forces have been terrorizing the Continent for the last two seasons. Emhyr’s interest in Ciri isn’t only for her powers. As the trailer shows, he’s a father hoping to reunite with his daughter. What if staying with Geralt and embracing a future as a Witcher is harder to do once Ciri realizes her father is alive? Even though she never really knew him, he is the only blood relative she has left.

But Ciri has clearly grown close to Geralt and Yennefer in the show, and knows them more than she really knows her father. Ciri becoming a Witcher is the most popular game path for the character for a reason, and seems the most likely direction for the show to take the character in the show. In the game, this path not only allows her to become a badass fighter who is fully confident in her abilities, but it’s one of the few paths for her life that seems to give her control over her future and some happiness after all of the hardship she’s gone through. 

Freya Allan’s Ciri has come a long way from the scared survivor we meet in season 1, and it will be interesting to see what important choices she has to make this season for her own future and for the future of The Continent. After watching her stab a monster in the head with a sword in the trailer, I for one cannot wait to see as much Witcher Ciri as possible in season 3 and hope the show gives her the agency she deserves in choosing her future.

Check out the trailer below, and let us know your thoughts about the upcoming season!

The Witcher season 3 part 1 will be available to watch on Netflix June 29.