Henry Cavill bids goodbye to Netflix's The Witcher series with the announcement of Season 4
Netflix broke the news yesterday, sending fans into both shock and frenzy. While the audience has a mixed reaction, some even demanding the boycott of Netflix's The Witcher series, we have some deeper insights into the events that led to this.
Fans of The Witcher game series and others are already quite familiar with Henry Cavill portraying the monster hunter, Geralt of Rivia. That is because the Netflix series based on the collection of books by Andrzej Sapkowski is already extremely popular, and has a huge fan following of its own. The dashing Henry Cavill has made the character of Geralt of Rivia his own through the first two seasons of The Witcher series. And we are all eagerly waiting for Season 3 to come, which will land in a few months this coming year.
And now, there’s news on The Witcher Season 4. Netflix officially announced on October 30th, that we’ll have a fourth season added to the series. However, this exciting news comes bearing both positive and negative emotions. Henry Cavill will no longer be starring as Geralt of Rivia following Season 3. To know more, read on.
Cavill bows out of Netflix's The Witcher with Season 3
While announcing Season 4 of The Witcher, Netflix also shared the news of Henry Cavill taking his leave from the series. Actor Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of portraying Geralt, Season 4 onwards. Both actors shared the news via their respective social media handles as well. Here are their statements.
The camaraderie is inspiring as the baton moves ahead, and hopefully to very able hands. Just like Cavill, Hemsworth too shares that he’s been “a Witcher fan”. Regardless, as Hemsworth puts it, “I may have some big boots to fill, but I’m truly excited to be stepping into The Witcher world.”
Diving deeper, why will Cavill not play Geralt of Rivia post-Season 3 of Netflix's The Witcher?
Coincidentally, the news arrives within days of Cavill confirming his comeback as Superman. Naturally, fans have now been speculating that Cavill categorically chose Superman over Geralt, and they are not exactly happy about it. Clearly, it came as quite a shock for fans to go as far as threatening to boycott the series altogether. But turns out, that maybe Cavill himself was not too keen on taking on the role of Geralt for much longer.
Old interviews have been dug up, revealing how Cavill has long been settling for a midground between his version of Geralt for the series, and that of the showrunners. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich shared how Cavill kept negotiating changes for Geralt’s portrayal. In another interview from December 2021, with Philstar Global, Cavill said that he “sought specific changes to Geralt, including having more dialogue.” Quoting Cavill, “The things that I pushed for, it was not necessarily just more dialogue. It was bringing a more book-accurate Geralt to the screen.”
Maybe, Superman was just that push that he needed to bid his final goodbyes to the Netflix series at least. As for his farewell from The Witcher franchise, clearly, here’s one die-hard Witcher fan that we’re talking about- games and books alike. So that should take more heart.