The Witcher started as a single short story Andrzej Sapkowski entered into a Polish magazine contest in 1986. Four decades later it covers nine books, a CD Projekt Red game series led by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which the studio says has sold more than 65 million copies on its own, a Netflix series heading into its final season, a run of animated and live action spinoffs, a standalone card game, and comics from Dark Horse.
At the center of nearly all of it is Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster hunter who swears he stays out of politics and gets dragged into them anyway. His adopted daughter Ciri has grown into just as big a part of the story, and The Witcher 4 hands her the lead for a brand new trilogy. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered has been out as a free upgrade since September 29, 2026, and CD Projekt Red already has two more Witcher releases lined up behind it, Songs of the Past in 2027 and The Witcher 4 in 2028. This page covers the books and the reading order, every Witcher game in release order, the Netflix shows and how to watch them in order, the main characters, and what is still on the way.
Andrzej Sapkowski wrote "The Witcher" (Wiedźmin in Polish) for a short story competition run by Fantastyka magazine, and it ran in the magazine in 1986. The story is a fairy tale turned inside out. Geralt is hired to lift a curse on King Foltest's daughter, who has been turned into a striga, and the job goes about as messily as anything in this series ever does.
That striga fight became the opening cinematic of CD Projekt Red's first game in 2007, and the chain Geralt uses to subdue her in that cutscene is coming back as a new weapon in Songs of the Past. It is a nice bit of continuity for a franchise that has been running for 40 years.
Sapkowski kept writing stories that bend Slavic folklore and familiar fairy tales into something darker. "A Grain of Truth" plays with Beauty and the Beast, and "The Lesser Evil" pulls from Snow White. Those early stories were collected into The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, and the five-novel Witcher Saga followed through the 1990s.
The Witcher book series has two short story collections, a five-book saga, and two standalone novels set earlier in Geralt's life. The years below are the original Polish publication dates. English translations came much later, with The Last Wish reaching English readers in 2007.
Sword of Destiny (1992) technically hit shelves in Poland before The Last Wish (1993), but The Last Wish collects the earliest stories and introduces Geralt, Jaskier, and Yennefer of Vengerberg. Sword of Destiny follows it and contains "Sword of Destiny," the story where Geralt first meets Ciri in the forest of Brokilon, along with "Something More," which sets up the Law of Surprise that ties the two of them together.
Blood of Elves (1994) brings Ciri to Kaer Morhen to train with the witchers before Yennefer takes over her magical education. Time of Contempt (1995) is built around the coup on the island of Thanedd, where the sorcerer Vilgefortz turns on the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, Geralt is badly injured, and Ciri ends up stranded in the Korath desert before falling in with a gang of young outlaws called the Rats.
Baptism of Fire (1996) sends a wounded Geralt south to find Ciri with an odd company that includes Jaskier, the archer Milva, the Nilfgaardian knight Cahir, and the vampire Regis. The Tower of the Swallow (1997) follows Ciri as the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart hunts her down. The Lady of the Lake (1999) closes the saga with Ciri traveling between worlds, the massive Battle of Brenna, and the final confrontation at Vilgefortz's castle of Stygga.
Season of Storms (2013) is a standalone Geralt adventure set between the stories in The Last Wish, kicked off when Geralt has his swords stolen in the city of Kerack. Crossroads of Ravens, first published in Polish in 2024, goes back even further and follows an 18-year-old Geralt in his first years on the Path after leaving Kaer Morhen, with an older witcher named Preston Holt as his mentor.
The order most readers settle on is The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, then the five saga novels in order: Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and The Lady of the Lake. Season of Storms and Crossroads of Ravens are both prequels, but they work better after the saga, since they lean on knowing where Geralt ends up.
Spoilers for The Lady of the Lake follow. After the fight at Stygga Castle, where Geralt kills Vilgefortz and Ciri kills Leo Bonhart, Geralt and Yennefer settle briefly in the town of Rivia. A pogrom against nonhumans breaks out, and Geralt is run through with a pitchfork while trying to stop it. Yennefer burns herself out trying to heal him. Ciri arrives and carries them both onto a boat that drifts into the mist, and Sapkowski leaves it open whether they died or ended up somewhere else. Ciri herself finishes the book in an Arthurian world, telling her story to the knight Galahad.
CD Projekt Red has made every mainline Witcher game, and all of them are set after the books. Here is every major Witcher game in release order, plus what is still in development.
CD Projekt Red's first game launched on PC in October 2007 on a modified version of BioWare's Aurora engine. Geralt wakes up near Kaer Morhen with no memory, and a criminal group called Salamandra raids the keep and steals the witchers' mutagen secrets. Chasing them pulls Geralt into a war between the Order of the Flaming Rose and the Scoia'tael in Temeria, all leading up to Jacques de Aldersberg. The game's choice system, where decisions pay off hours later without warning, became the series' calling card.
The Witcher Remake is in development at Fool's Theory, the Polish studio behind The Thaumaturge, on Unreal Engine 5. CD Projekt Red has not attached a release window to it yet.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings arrived on PC in May 2011, and the Enhanced Edition came to Xbox 360 in April 2012. The Xbox 360 version is backward compatible on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Geralt is framed for the murder of King Foltest by Letho of Gulet, a witcher working as a kingslayer, and spends the game trying to clear his name. The big swing here is Act 2, which plays out in completely different locations depending on whether Geralt sides with the elf Iorveth or the Temerian commander Vernon Roche. A lot of players never see half of the game on their first run.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launched May 19, 2015 on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, followed by a Nintendo Switch port in 2019 and a free next-gen update for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in December 2022. Geralt is searching for Ciri, who is on the run from the Wild Hunt and its king, Eredin, while the Northern Kingdoms are torn apart by Emperor Emhyr var Emreis's invasion. The open world spans Velen, Novigrad, the Skellige Isles, and a return to Kaer Morhen. CD Projekt Red puts its sales above 65 million copies and its Game of the Year award count above 250.
The Bloody Baron questline in Velen is the moment a lot of players point to when they talk about what this game does differently. It starts as a simple missing persons job and turns into a story about a drunk, violent man trying to make amends, with no clean outcome waiting at the end.
Hearts of Stone (October 2015) sends Geralt into a deal gone wrong between the cursed nobleman Olgierd von Everec and Gaunter O'Dimm, a merchant who is very obviously more than a merchant. Blood and Wine (May 2016) moves the action to the sunny duchy of Toussaint, brings back the higher vampire Regis from the books, and caps off Geralt's story with his own vineyard, Corvo Bianco. As of August 25, 2026, both expansions are free for anyone who owns The Witcher 3.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered launched September 29, 2026 as a free upgrade for existing owners on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. CD Projekt Red co-developed it with Yigsoft, the support studio that worked on Phantom Liberty and the 2022 Complete Edition. This one goes well past a visual pass, with reworked combat, improved traversal, a revamped Roach, smarter monster behavior, reworked skill trees, transmogrification, and new effects for Signs and finishers. It is also the first time The Witcher 3 runs natively on Nintendo Switch 2, where owners of the original Switch version can claim it for free, and it marks the game's arrival on Battle.net through a partnership with Blizzard.
Songs of the Past is the third expansion for The Witcher 3 and the first new one since Blood and Wine in 2016. Fool's Theory is co-developing it with CD Projekt Red, and it launches in 2027 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. Geralt heads to Letten, a new region tied to Jaskier's family, where a harvest festival gone wrong uncovers something nasty under the surface. The Gamescom 2026 demo showed the Lettenhove estate where Jaskier grew up, his cousin Lilla, a new enemy called the Swarmion, and the hook-and-chain weapon lifted from the first game's opening cinematic. CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michał Nowakowski has described it as a prologue to The Witcher 4 in a way, while stressing that it tells a standalone story.
Gwent started as a card game inside The Witcher 3 and spun out into its own free-to-play game, Gwent: The Witcher Card Game, which fully launched in 2018. CD Projekt Red wrapped up new Gwent content in 2023 and handed balance updates over to the player community. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, also from 2018, is a story-driven RPG built on Gwent's card battles, starring Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia during the Nilfgaardian invasion. Geralt barely shows up, and it is a better game for it.
The Witcher: Monster Slayer was a location-based augmented reality game for phones from Spokko, a studio owned by CD Projekt. It launched in 2021 and shut down in 2023.
The Witcher 4 was revealed with a cinematic trailer at The Game Awards in December 2024, showing Ciri as a full witcher taking on a Bauk in a village that sacrifices its young women to the monster. It is the first game in a new trilogy, built in-house at CD Projekt Red on Unreal Engine 5, and a June 2025 tech demo placed Ciri in the northern kingdom of Kovir. On August 24, 2026, Michał Nowakowski confirmed that The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release window, while making it clear that 2028 is a target rather than a locked date. It is expected on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
The games are an unofficial continuation of the Witcher Saga, and Andrzej Sapkowski has never treated them as part of his canon. CD Projekt Red picked up after the ambiguous ending of The Lady of the Lake and decided Geralt survived, with amnesia explaining why he does not remember the events of the books in the first game. Yennefer returns in The Witcher 3, and Ciri's story wraps up there with several possible endings, including Ciri becoming Empress of Nilfgaard or a witcher. The Witcher 4 picks up with Ciri as a witcher, which lines up with that second ending.
Netflix's The Witcher, created for television by showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, premiered December 20, 2019 with Henry Cavill as Geralt, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Freya Allan as Ciri, and Joey Batey as Jaskier. Season 1 jumps between three timelines and adapts stories from The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, which is also where "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" came from.
Season 2 arrived December 17, 2021 and adapts Blood of Elves, with Ciri training at Kaer Morhen. Season 3 was split into two volumes on June 29 and July 27, 2023, drawing from Time of Contempt, and it was Henry Cavill's last season after Netflix announced his exit in late October 2022. Liam Hemsworth took over as Geralt in Season 4, which premiered October 30, 2025, adapting Baptism of Fire and adding Laurence Fishburne as Regis.
Season 5 is the final season of The Witcher and finished filming in 2025. Netflix originally pointed to a late 2026 window, but What's on Netflix has reported it slipped into 2027, and Netflix has not announced a date. Liam Hemsworth, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, Joey Batey, and Laurence Fishburne are all expected back, with the season adapting the end of the saga, including The Lady of the Lake.
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (August 2021) is an animated film from Studio Mir about a young Vesemir and the attack on Kaer Morhen. The Witcher: Blood Origin (December 2022) is a four-episode live action prequel set 1,200 years before Geralt, covering the creation of the first witcher prototype and the Conjunction of the Spheres, with Michelle Yeoh in the cast. The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (February 2025) is another Studio Mir animated film, based on the short story "A Little Sacrifice," and it brings in Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt in the games, to voice Geralt. The Rats: A Witcher Tale, a special centered on the outlaw gang Ciri runs with, dropped alongside Season 4.
For the Netflix Witcher shows in chronological order, start with Blood Origin, then Nightmare of the Wolf, then Season 1. Sirens of the Deep takes place during Season 1, between episodes 5 and 6. After that, watch Season 2, Season 3, and Season 4, with Season 5 closing things out in 2027.
Netflix was not the first live action Witcher. Poland made Wiedźmin, released in English as The Hexer, as a 2001 film and a 2002 TV series starring Michał Żebrowski as Geralt. Both have a rough reputation, mostly for the effects, but they are a fun piece of franchise history.
Geralt is a witcher from the School of the Wolf, mutated as a child at Kaer Morhen into a monster hunter with heightened senses, a long lifespan, and a reputation he cannot shake. He is voiced by Doug Cockle in the English versions of the games and played by Henry Cavill and Liam Hemsworth on Netflix.
Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, known as Ciri, is the princess of Cintra, Geralt's Child Surprise, and the heir to the Elder Blood, which gives her the power to move between times and worlds. Jo Wyatt voices her in The Witcher 3, Freya Allan plays her on Netflix, and she is the lead of The Witcher 4.
Yennefer is a powerful sorceress, Geralt's great love, and the closest thing Ciri has to a mother. Denise Gough voices her in The Witcher 3, and Anya Chalotra plays her on Netflix.
Triss is a sorceress from Maribor, a friend to Geralt and Ciri, and the main romance option in the first two games. Jaimi Barbakoff voices her in The Witcher 3.
Jaskier, called Dandelion in the English game translations, is a bard, a viscount, and Geralt's oldest friend. John Schwab voices him in the games, Joey Batey plays him on Netflix, and Songs of the Past is built around his family's home in Letten.
Vesemir is the oldest witcher at Kaer Morhen and a father figure to Geralt, and his younger days are the focus of Nightmare of the Wolf. Emiel Regis is a higher vampire who travels with Geralt in Baptism of Fire, returns in Blood and Wine, and is played by Laurence Fishburne on Netflix.
CD Projekt Red is the Warsaw-based studio behind every mainline Witcher game. The Witcher 4 is being built in-house, alongside another Witcher project, the next Cyberpunk game, and a new IP. Fool's Theory is handling The Witcher Remake and co-developing Songs of the Past, Yigsoft co-developed The Witcher 3 Remastered, and Studio Mir animated both Netflix Witcher films.
The next few years are packed. Songs of the Past and the final Netflix season are both expected in 2027, The Witcher 4 is targeting 2028, and The Witcher Remake is still in production at Fool's Theory without a date. CD Projekt Red has also said it wants to release three Witcher games across a six-year span, which would put the rest of Ciri's new trilogy on a much faster schedule than the 10-year gap between The Witcher 3 and The Witcher 4.
CD Projekt Red is targeting a 2028 release window for The Witcher 4. Joint CEO Michał Nowakowski confirmed the target in August 2026 but said it is not a locked date.
Yes. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered launched September 29, 2026 as a free upgrade for owners on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Owners of the original Switch version can claim the native Switch 2 version for free.
No. The Witcher 3 tells its own story and explains the important relationships, though the earlier games add context for characters like Triss, Letho, and Emhyr.
Netflix has not announced a date. What's on Netflix reported that the final season moved from late 2026 into 2027.
Netflix announced in October 2022 that Henry Cavill would leave after Season 3. He left over creative differences. Liam Hemsworth took over as Geralt starting with Season 4.
The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves, Time of Contempt, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow, and The Lady of the Lake. Season of Storms and Crossroads of Ravens are prequels that work best after the saga.
Not to Andrzej Sapkowski. The games are CD Projekt Red's continuation set after the books, with Geralt surviving the ending of The Lady of the Lake.
Yes. The Witcher 4 picks up with Ciri as a witcher, matching one of The Witcher 3's possible endings.