Believe it or not, Geralt of Rivia was nearly cut out of The Witcher video games. The news comes directly from CD Projekt Red quest designers Phillipp Weber and Blazej Augustynek during WitcherCon – who said the first game was set to feature a customizable witcher instead of the protagonist from Andrzej Sapkowski's novels.
It's hard to imagine The Witcher without Geralt. Not only is he the star of three highly-rated games, but he's also managed to jump to the small screen with Netflix's Witcher series – and even has an upcoming anime. Despite his current popularity, however, CDPR almost left him behind to explore uncharted territory.
"For the first few years, basically, we tried to make it so you can make your own witcher, and you were exploring new lands, but then, over and over, the question came, you know. The game is called The Witcher," Weber said. "At some point, I think everyone kind of realized, yeah, we want to be Geralt of Rivia, we want to be the Witcher."
There's plenty of unwritten history that the Witcher games could have covered, but making Geralt the centerpiece of the adventure was no doubt the right call.
For more Witcher news, be sure to check out the second WitcherCon stream later tonight. We've already learned more about the upcoming season of The Witcher on Netflix, and plenty more is bound to be announced.
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