Today, Netflix has premiered the third season of The Witcher, and people have started to say goodbye to Geralt of Rivia. Or, at least, to the actor who has been portraying the Witcher for four years.
The Witcher saga made the leap from books to video games a decade ago, with overwhelming success. Some time later, Netflix decided it was time to create an exclusive series to enrich its catalog with some top-notch fantasy.
For the role of Geralt of Rivia, the show’s creators deemed Henry Cavill, an actor who was highly popular at the time for portraying Superman in DC movies, as the ideal candidate for the job. They couldn’t have been more right.
Farewell to Henry Cavill, the perfect Geralt of Rivia
When it was announced that Henry Cavill would be portraying Geralt of Rivia, the response was unanimous: happiness, applause, and many toasts to the sun. The English actor was the perfect fit for the role, and we all knew it.
Although the character of Geralt of Rivia is older in the books and games than the current age of the English actor, the showrunners didn’t see this as a major issue. After all, the White Wolf has gray hair and a grizzled beard. This added years to the character… but with the body of a thirty-something.
Geralt is an incredibly attractive, rugged, and stoic character, sculpted in steel. Honestly, Henry Cavill seemed tailor-made for the role, which is why his portrayal of the Witcher has always been sublime.
While the series has had many problems, especially with its script (the first season’s narrative style left everyone confused about the plot), everyone agreed that Henry Cavill was the reason the show was working.
A fight with the directors and a goodbye
So what happened? Well, it was a matter of differences in vision. Not seeing the work with the same eyes, not agreeing with the artistic direction, not liking the tone and future storyline of the series…
It seems that Henry, being a big fan of the books and Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, felt that the showrunners were missing the mark with the series and straying too far from the true essence of the Polish writer’s creation.
Because of all this, Henry Cavill announced last summer that his involvement in The Witcher series had come to an end, and that the third season would be his last as Geralt of Rivia. Now Liam Hemsworth will be taking over for the fourth season, and only time will tell if the formula will continue to work.
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