CD Projekt's next Witcher trilogy has a new game director
Sebastian Kalemba was previously a creative director at CD Projekt and animation director on Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 animation director Sebastian Kalemba has revealed on Twitter that he's taken the role of game director in CD Projekt's next Witcher game.
"Career news: I’m directing the new Witcher Saga," Kalemba tweeted. "Since joining @CDPROJEKTRED I believe nothing is impossible and raising the bar, telling emotional stories & creating worlds is what we’re here for. I’m proud to be part of CDPR and work with such a talented and passionate team."
Career news: I’m directing the new Witcher Saga. Since joining @CDPROJEKTRED I believe nothing is impossible and raising the bar, telling emotional stories & creating worlds is what we’re here for. I’m proud to be part of CDPR and work with such a talented and passionate team.November 3, 2022
Prior to Cyberpunk 2077, Kalemba served as a character animator on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and then as lead animator on the Hearts of Stone expansion, and animation director on Blood and Wine. Before hooking up with CD Projekt, he was lead animator on Risen 3: Titan Lords, and did testing on Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan. Most recently, according to his LinkedIn profile, Kalemba held a creative director role at CD Projekt, although it doesn't indicate what project he was working on.
CD Projekt has not officially announced Kalemba's position, but multiple employees including Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Pawel Sasko, community director Marcin Momot, PR director Radek Grabowski, and communication manager Pawel Burza congratulated him on the new job.
Kalemba will be the first relative newcomer to take the reins on CD Projekt's Witcher series. The original Witcher didn't have a director by name but credits CD Projekt co-founder Michał Kiciński for "game vision," while the director on The Witcher 2: Assassins of King was Adam Badowski, who's been with CD Projekt since 2002 and is a member of the company's board of directors. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz got his start as a tester on the original Witcher before becoming lead quest designer on Witcher 2. Tomaszkiewicz left CD Projekt in early 2022 to co-found a new studio called Rebel Wolves.
I don't see that as a problem, to be clear. The Witcher 3 is seven years old and will almost certainly be a full decade (or, likely, more) by the time Witcher 4 rolls around; the original Witcher will be pushing 20. As much as I love the series (and I love it very much), if CD Projekt is going to carry on with it—and especially if it's going to move away from the continuing adventures of Geralt—then new blood and new vision will be vital to making it work.
We still know very little about The Witcher 4 at this point. CD Projekt said in May that the game had entered pre-production, but who it will follow—probably not Geralt, but maybe Ciri, or perhaps someone entirely new (or even a whole new school)—remains to be seen, as does the proper title, which we're guessing won't be The Witcher 4. One interesting thing to note is that Kalemba's avatar on both his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts is art taken from The Witcher: Old World board game, which is set long before the time of Geralt, when multiple witcher schools were at the height of their power.
A hint of what's to come? Probably not, but anything is possible at this point.
A release date for the next big Witcher game isn't even being hinted at, of course: CD Projekt recently said it wants to release three new Witcher games over a six-year stretch, which we don't think is necessarily a good idea—too much of a good thing and all that—but we're also not that worried, because there's basically zero chance of it happening.