How The Witcher Season 4 Gave Yennefer Her Big Hero Moment

This article contains spoilers for The Witcher season 4.

The Witcher season 4 is full of big changes. The most obvious, of course, is the fact that Liam Hemsworth has taken over the role of Geralt of Rivia from departing lead actor Henry Cavill. But it’s also possible to argue that swapping out an actor, even such a central one, is one of the least interesting, and likely least important, things that happens during this run of episodes.

Ciri’s (Freya Allan) journey takes her to some extremely dark places (both literally and metaphorically) during her time with the gang of misfit thieves known as the Rats. The fact that Geralt is wearing a new face in many ways is simply an exterior reflection of the extensive emotional changes he’s going through in the wake of everything that happened last season. But no character steps more fully into themselves in season 4 than the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), who began the series chasing the promise of power for her own ends but has now evolved into the sort of leader who’s not only ready but expects to sacrifice herself for something greater than her own desires. 

The fact that the show pulls off this transformation is particularly remarkable because, as readers of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher Saga can tell you, at this point in the books’ story, Yennefer doesn’t have a whole lot to do. Following the events of Thanedd, she basically disappears completely from Baptism of Fire, spending something like 50 days—basically the entire time Geralt’s joining up with his hansa—as a jade statue, thanks to a spell cast by Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson in the show). To say that this is not what happens onscreen is something of an understatement.

The television version of The Witcher has already taken some liberties with various aspects of Yennefer’s story, even as it works to find a balance between being faithful to the show’s source material and striking out in new creative directions. But, suffice it to say, The Witcher, and its showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, weren’t planning to stay particularly true to this part of the novels. (Though The Witcher does pay homage to this moment by having Yen basically kidnap Francesca and bring her to Montecalvo using this same magical process.) 

“In this section of the books, Yennefer is a jade statue for a very long time, and I remember talking to [Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer] about this really early on to say, We’re not going to do that with you. Because obviously,” Hissrich told a roundtable of journalists ahead of the season 4 premiere.”

Instead, The Witcher strikes out on a different path. Like Geralt and Ciri, Yennefer is firmly on her own adventure this season, embracing the very community she once tried so hard to leave behind, even as she fights to locate her missing daughter and reunite her family. As she assembles the survivors of Aretuza to strike back against dark sorcerer Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu), Yen fully steps up as a leader in a way we’ve never seen before. From teaching her fellow sorceresses hand to hand combat to reaching out to Vesemir (Peter Mullan) and putting her his witchers for help and putting herself in the middle of combat, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to save her people and get back to Ciri. 

“She’s always wanted to be a leader for the wrong reasons, I would say, or reasons that have stemmed from trauma and desperation, rage,” Chalotra said. “And this season she needs this position to be able to help [both] the Continent and her child.”

Yes, Yen’s season 4 arc is essentially a subplot made up out of whole cloth, and one in which she’s basically reimagined as the person responsible for creating the Lodge of Sorceresses rather than a member who is asked to join later on (after Francesca, you know, reverses the whole statue problem). But watching her take both responsibility and accountability for the wrong she’s done to the sisters she now wants to fight beside is deeply satisfying. 

“We have had to create some Yennefer storylines from the ground up. But I think this season brought, for me at least, an entirely new flavor to the character,” Hissrich said. “I always refer to it as Yennefer’s Woman on Fire season, because that’s what it feels like.”

The Witcher season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.