The Witcher 4 finds director after exodus of Wild Hunt creatives

The Witcher 4 and the following two games in the new saga are getting a new creative force after Cyberpunk 2077 and Wild Hunt talent left CD Projekt Red. With The Witcher Remake being worked on externally, it's a time of change.

The future of The Witcher series under CD Project Red will be in the hands of new director Sebastian Kalemba after the developer shed a few directors in the making of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. The new Witcher saga is set to usher in a new era after the exodus of Wild Hunt creatives.

The Witcher 4 director is a fresh face

The new Witcher games will be a creative reboot, too

Sebastian Kalemba is leading the charge on The Witcher 4 and will take on the future of The Witcher series on PS5. Pre-production has started on this first entry in the new saga and it is Codenamed Polaris, which you can read more about in our summary article of the new Witcher games. A long-time animation lead for CDPR, Kalemba's announcement reads: "I believe nothing is impossible and raising the bar, telling emotional stories & creating worlds is what we’re here for."

Kalemba is the latest in a long line of game directors across The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. By our count, CD Projekt has had three separate game directors over last two games: Konrad Tomaszkiewicz (now head of Rebel Wolves), Gabe Amatangelo, and former studio head turned CEO turned game director Adam Badowski. Indeed, even the latest game seemingly once had Jason Slama in the chair before this latest announcement. Game directing is a deeply stressful job on these massive titles, so you do tend to see talent turnover or rotation for different projects — we said as much in our God of War Ragnarok review — but four directors over two games is pretty substantial, though Badowski is notably an unusual case.

The Witcher 3 was good, wasn't it?

Anyway, with an outside company making The Witcher Remake and solving The myth of the missing Witcher games on PlayStation, it looks like these reshuffles in talent are probably part of the Polish company's attempt to restructure and create a better working environment for its team. Interesting nonetheless, we say! If this new game is as good as Wild Hunt, one of the best PS4 games, then we are in for a treat! Excited? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.