No, CDPR Did Not Change Ciri’s Face Back In ‘The Witcher 4’

Because this is 2025, we are consistently stumbling into baffling video game controversies, even when it comes to games everyone wants to see, in this case, The Witcher 4.

Last year’s trailer revealed that yes, it would be an older Ciri leading the game, and we got a cinematic of her doing let’s say, a sidequest, which involves fight a monster in an attempt to save a young girl being sacrificed.

But one issue raised by a certain segment of fans was that it appeared that Ciri’s appearance did not look enough like the original, younger version for The Witcher 4, implying, or sometimes saying outright complete with bone structure diagrams, that she wasn’t as attractive now.

This week, CDPR has released a lengthy behind the scenes look at the creation of that trailer, with several new glimpses that do in fact look different, and a bit more like Witcher 3 Ciri. There was some celebration that CDPR had seemingly reacted to those who were upset and had changed her model to be “hotter.”

This is not in fact what happened, as it’s the same exact model, the difference being it’s not filtered through some of the specific lens effects used in the cinematic to make it feel more movie-like, to convey terror, etc. Here CDPR’s Sebastian Kalemba explaining this:

“The behind-the-scenes video features the same in-game model of Ciri as seen in the original trailer. 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. This variation is a natural part of the game development process. At this point, any character’s appearance may vary depending on the medium—whether it’s in a trailer, a 3D model, or in-game.”

So, even if the game does have in-engine cinematics, they will probably not be as involved as this one which was created for the debut reveal, and with no similar effects, the first two images above are what Ciri is going to look like. No conspiracy, just how these things are developed. Hopefully we will see more from The Witcher 4 soon, but it may be a while yet given that the game is still pretty far off and it will no doubt be heads down for a while.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.