Recently, Platige Image and CD Projekt RED unveiled a behind-the-scenes look at The Witcher 4’s Cinematic Reveal Trailer, while also providing new insights about the game’s central protagonist Ciri and some of the narrative themes that explore her character in compelling and nuanced ways.
The official Reveal trailer for The Witcher 4 was released on December 12th, 2024 and focuses on a female character named Mioni, who was about to be sacrificed in the mysterious village of Stromford. The game’s Narrative Director Philipp Weber states that Ciri and Mioni are “mirrors of each other”, as the former fights against her destiny while the later embraces it, making them sort of parallels to each other in interesting ways.
“One of the really important things was for the viewers to feel as Ciri would feel, so you could see how the story unfolds together with her and get the same emotional flow as she would get, as she was trying to fix the issue of the village. The way she kills the monster, the way she reacts to people killing Mioni, it’s different than what Geralt would do. She lives through these emotions she’s connected with herself.”
The devs also share how the trailer was made possible by the use of a 14-day extensive mocap session:
“In the trailer, for example, when you see Ciri when she enters the fog, you can see that she’s confused, that she doesn’t know where to look, that camera is more aggressive with motion and we wanted to express more of this confusion. We wanted to have this glimpse of truth in it. But also, there are scenes when magic happens and then we want to switch from those handheld cameras to more created ones. The style completely changes, so we go with cranes now, with dollies.”
Many fans of the series have also speculated a slight but clearly noticeable change in Ciri’s face from the original Cinematic trailer at several points in the behind-the-scenes feature, but game director Sebastian Kalemba has confirmed that they haven’t altered her face in any way, at all.
“The behind-the-scenes video features the same in-game model of Ciri as seen in the original trailer,” Kalemba stated.
“We have not modified it. What you’re seeing is raw footage — without facial animation, lighting, or virtual camera lenses. While it’s still in-engine, it represents a work-in-progress snapshot taken before we applied cinematic touches for the purpose of that video.”
The Witcher 4 is the first in a new trilogy of Action RPG titles set after the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
