The Witcher 4 is bound to, as most of CDPR’s games end up doing (even if it takes them a while), shake the RPG firmament. Especially given this time, it’s got a new lead: With Ciri taking over the role of the game’s protagonist, donning Geralt’s old boots for her own adventure. Not only that, but the new lead has a new voice actor, with Ciara Berkeley stepping into the role in place of Jo Wyatt.
Geralt’s long-time voice actor, Doug Cockle, has been enthusiastic about the choice to have Ciri take the lead—and withering towards people who need to “read the damn books”. And now, in a sweet display of voice actor camaraderie, he’s stated that he thinks Berkeley will nail the new role, too.
That’s per an interview our friends over at GamesRadar+ did with The Witcher vet during the Golden Joystick Awards 2025. Cockle states that he hadn’t met Berkeley in person until the awards themselves, but now that he has? He’s sold.
“I only spoke with her briefly, just today. We exchanged some DMs a couple of weeks ago just to say hi,” Cockle told the site. “She’s lovely, and I think she’s going to do a great job. She’s got a fantastic presence in person. I don’t really have any advice. I’ve offered to chat with her if she has any questions or anything like that, but she’s a strong person. She’s going to be fine.”
Not that you’d expect Cockle to meet his new co-star (Geralt’s still gonna pop up in there, somewhere) and go ‘well, she sucks, actually’. But it’s nice to see how fully on-board he’s been, and is continuing to be, in the face of the sorts of griping from the usual suspects—the same folks who prompted Cockle to tell complainees to crack a spine every now and then. And hey, given CD Projekt’s just getting bigger, it’s going to be one hell of a sequel.
