The Witcher will have a fourth season, but Henry Cavill won’t play Geralt of Rivia.
Returning as Superman but unable to save the day once again, it is with sadness in my heart and tear-dropping anticipation that I love-hate to announce that Henry Cavill, famous for playing the sword-welding, bruxas-butchering, continent-crossing character that we all love to see, will not return to the Witcher series after Season 3, which is set to drop in the summer of ’23.
Henry personally lobbied to play the role of Geralt of Rivia, a recluse monster hunter who travels all over what is said to be the Continent, killing monsters and cashing in coins, before he is inadvertently tasked with protecting the young princess Ciri of Cintra from forces that set out to do her harm.
Photo credit: Flickr
The series, which is based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels of the same name, premiered on Netflix back in 2019 and is filled with mystery, adventure, and all that good stuff.
Henry announced via his Instagram handle, expressing to his millions of fans around the continents, “My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4.”
He said, “In my stead, the fantastic Mr. Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf.”
“As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men.”
“Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him; enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”
Liam Hemsworth, famous for participating in all four Hunger Games films and now tasked with taking up the mantle of Geralt, went on to corroborate Mr. Cavill’s departure by announcing on his Instagram that same day his excitement to take up the lead as the White Wolf, saying that, “As a Witcher fan, I’m over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia.”
Photo credit: Flickr
Further expanding on that, he praised the work of his predecessor, saying, “Henry Cavill has been an incredible Geralt, and I’m honoured that he’s handing me the reins and allowing me to take up the White Wolf’s blades for the next chapter of his adventure.”
Henry, I’ve been a fan of yours for years and was inspired by what you brought to this beloved character: “I may have some big boots to fill, but I’m truly excited to be stepping into The Witcher world.”
As fans learn of this shocking new development, neither Netflix nor any of the parties involved have made it a point to let us in on why Henry will be leaving the pack.
Why is Henry Cavill Leaving The Witcher?
Still, our suspicion is that it might be due to scheduling conflicts as Cavil is set to don the iconic costume yet again and play Superman in the DC extended universe as well as a bunch of other roles, thus making it difficult to mentor Ciri on the small screen in a bid to entertain us.
Our suspicion is however put to question as pop culture YouTuber Charles Peralo observes that Henry currently only has a one-picture deal with Warner Bros. to reprise his role as Superman, which apparently wouldn’t cause scheduling conflicts when filming The Witcher.
Charles believes that Henry’s abrupt departure was caused by creative differences as a result of the show’s producer, Beau Demayo, quitting the show and blaming the show’s writers as the reason.
Despite the fact that Henry has expressed interest in assuming the mantle of James Bond—for which I will openly admit to having a bias—Charles believes that Henry’s sudden departure was due to the show’s writers.
The Witcher Henry was interested in playing has more similarities to the source material than what the showrunners plan to show the audience, he adds, and the Witcher writers don’t care for the source material, which includes the books and video games.
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What do you think is the reason he’s leaving, though? Let us know in the comments!
Very insightful write up. It’ll be nice seeing Henry as Superman again but also sad not to see him as the Witcher. The recast was too sudden and I feel like they didn’t even try to work things out. Nothing we can do about it though, can’t wait to see Liam’s performance.
Would equally like to see his interpretation of the role!