The Witcher: How Old Geralt Is At The End of Season 1

Thanks to a mix of magic and mutation, The Witcher‘s gruff protagonist Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) ages a lot slower than normal humans. While he may not look like it, Geralt is around 150 years old at the end of The Witcher season 1. More than half a century passes during the debut season of the Netflix fantasy series, but Geralt barely appears to age at all.

The source for Geralt’s age is The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich, who said in an interview with SciFi Now that he is “almost 100 years old when the series starts.” The official timeline for The Witcher season 1 starts around 1210 and ends with Geralt and Ciri (Freya Allen) finally meeting in 1263. That doesn’t give us an exact figure for Geralt’s age, since “almost 100” is a little vague and there’s no exact year given for the “Butcher of Blaviken” episode, but 150 is the best estimate. Of course, Geralt is so old that even he may have lost count of the years.

Geralt in The Witcher TV show is considerably older than he is in the books by Andrzej Sapkowski, or the video games produced by CD Projekt Red. His age is somewhat woolly in both, but he’s generally estimated to be anywhere from 50-100 in the books (depending on the time period), and is said to be almost 100 years old by the time of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Although the video games take place several years after the books, they are not considered to be canon by Sapkowski – which means there are three different versions of Witcher canon, and Geralt has different ages in all of them. Truly a man of mystery.

How Old Yennefer and Ciri Are In The Witcher

While the age of The Witcher‘s leading man may be a little uncertain, we know exactly how old Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and Ciri are thanks to an interview with Chalotra and the official show timeline. Speaking to ComicsBeat, Chalotra revealed that Yennefer is 14 years old when she’s sold to Tissaia de Vries (MyAnna Buring) at the start of the series, and 77 years old in The Witcher‘s season 1 finale, putting her year of birth at 1186. Ciri is born in 1249 and is 14 years old when she meets Geralt at the end of the season, in 1263.

Geralt ages slowly due to his mutations and Yennefer is kept eternally youthful by her magic. However, this longevity comes at a cost: neither of them can have biological children. In the Witcher books it’s said that magic and fertility simply don’t mix, and that’s why all witchers and sorceresses are barren. In the show things get a little more graphic, as Yennefer’s reproductive organs are cut out of her during her ascension ceremony. She later regrets making this exchange, and spends much of The Witcher season 1 searching for a way to restore her fertility.

Meanwhile, Ciri ages at a normal rate – for now. The Witcher season 2 could see her go down the path of a witcher or that of a sorceress, following in either Geralt or Yennefer’s footsteps. She also has a great power of her own – the source of which has yet to be revealed in the show.

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Hannah Shaw-Williams
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Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

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