NOTE: There are spoilers ahead for one of The Witcher 3’s endings.
The Witcher 4 is going to kick off a new trilogy for CD Projekt RED’s fantasy action RPG series, but though it’s clearly marking a new beginning, it’s also obviously not a completely fresh start. It’s called The Witcher 4, after all, and not only stars a familiar character as its new protagonist in Ciri, but is also bringing back former protagonist Geralt of Rivia in some capacity. As you may guess, then, The Witcher 4 is going to maintain full continuity with events that preceded it.
Of course, that’s a little more complicated than it may seem, because one of The Witcher 3’s ending actually sees Ciri dying. According to Cian Maher, CDPR’s franchise and lore designer for Witcher, however, that ending may not be such an open-and-shut case. Speaking in an interview with IGN, he stated that there are hints in the ending that Ciri may have been alive after all.
“The one complication is probably the idea that there is an ending in which Ciri can die in The Witcher 3,” he said. “There are hints in that ending that highlight the fact that she probably does not die.”
As such, as per Maher, The Witcher 4 isn’t going to “break any canon or even offend any canon”, regardless of which of The Witcher 3’s endings you want to consider canon.
Game director Sebastian Kalemba has also spoken about how The Witcher 4 will place even greater emphasis on player agency, not only with its branching storytelling, but also with its greater gameplay variety. Read more on that through here.