A single photo. A cryptic caption. And suddenly, the entire Witcher community is paying attention.
Doug Cockle, the voice of Geralt of Rivia across all three mainline Witcher games and the Netflix animated film The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, posted a photo to X on July 29 from what is clearly a professional recording booth. His caption: "Oh don't mind me… just visiting an old friend… and of course Roach."
The official Witcher account responded almost immediately: "The Witcher and Roach back on the Path."
That exchange is about as close to a confirmation as you get without an official press release. Cockle and CD Projekt Red stopped short of naming Songs of the Past directly, but the context makes it hard to read any other way.
Why Roach changes the equation
Here's the thing: the mention of Roach is the detail that locks this in. Roach, Geralt's horse, is a fixture of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt specifically. The character doesn't carry the same narrative weight in the earlier games, and a Witcher 1 remake (which CD Projekt Red also has in development) would be set long before the version of Geralt and Roach that players spent dozens of hours with in the third game.
Songs of the Past, announced by CD Projekt Red in May, will be the third expansion for The Witcher 3. It arrives more than a decade after Blood and Wine, the second expansion that released in 2016. The studio is co-developing it with Fool's Theory, a team that includes veterans who worked on the original game.
Voice recording typically happens late in development, often after the script has been locked and major structural changes are off the table. Cockle posting from a booth right now lines up with a 2027 release window for Songs of the Past.
The Witcher 4 question that keeps coming up
Cockle's return for Songs of the Past is straightforward. His status in The Witcher 4 is considerably messier.
Back in August 2024, Cockle said publicly that Geralt would appear in The Witcher 4, even if not as the lead character. CD Projekt Red pushed back hard. By December 2024, Cockle walked it back entirely, saying he "got slapped by CD Projekt" and clarified that he had spoken based on a rumour, not confirmed information. His current position: he genuinely does not know whether Geralt will appear in The Witcher 4 or how significant that role might be.
The Witcher 4 follows Ciri as its main protagonist, last seen at the end of The Witcher 3. Whether Geralt shows up in any meaningful capacity remains one of the more interesting open questions heading into that game.
What this means for fans waiting on Songs of the Past
For players who have been waiting on any signal that Songs of the Past is genuinely in motion, this is it. Cockle in a recording booth, Roach referenced by name, the official Witcher account engaging directly: the expansion is moving through production.
Blood and Wine set a high bar. It added the entire Toussaint region, ran roughly 20 hours for a thorough playthrough, and is still considered one of the best pieces of DLC the RPG genre has produced. Songs of the Past has that legacy to contend with.
For everything confirmed about the expansion so far, including what CD Projekt Red has shared about setting, story direction, and the 2027 release window, the Songs of the Past DLC guide has the full breakdown. More details from the broader Witcher 3 guide collection are worth bookmarking as the expansion gets closer to release.
