Henry Cavill will be leaving The Witcher after season 3, replaced by Liam Hemsworth

midian182

midian182

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What just happened? Here's some potentially bad news for fans of The Witcher show but good news for those who love Superman. Geek God Henry Cavill will not portray Geralt of Rivia in the fourth season of the Netflix series, passing the torch to Liam Hemsworth. It appears that the actor either won't have time to play the White Wolf due to his return as The Man of Steel, or he's not happy with the show's deviation from its source material.

Netflix writes that even though the third season of The Witcher has yet to debut, it's already been renewed for a fourth season, but with one significant change: Henry Cavill is stepping down as Geralt to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth in season 4.

"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," said Cavill in a statement. "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."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill)

There was a lot of pushback from internet commentators in 2018 when Netflix announced Cavill would be taking on the role of Geralt in its upcoming Netflix series. It was felt the then-35-year-old was too young to play the grizzled monster hunter and that someone like Mads Mikkelsen would be a better choice. His screen test, complete with a cheap, Lord Raiden-style wig, didn't help convince people.

Thankfully, Cavill won the hearts of Witcher fans with an excellent portrayal—his love of the books and games, and all things nerdy, has made him even more endearing—so it's sad to hear he will be leaving before season 4. The British actor doesn't seem to be ruling out a return as Geralt at some point, though it seems unlikely.

There's debate over whether Cavill is leaving due to scheduling conflicts caused by his return as Superman, or if it's related to problems on show itself; there are reports that its writers hate the books and games.

Hemsworth says he is also a Witcher fan, but that hasn't stopped some Twitter users from expressing outrage and disappointment over Cavill's departure.

We'll be waiting a long time before discovering if Hemsworth also proves the critics wrong. Season 3, which stars Cavill, doesn't arrive until the summer of 2023, so season 4 will likely be here in 2024 at the earliest.

In related news, Cavill recently revealed how many hours a day he likes to spend gaming, most of them presumably playing Total War: Warhammer 3. He also talked about his favorite geek possession.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/96495-henry-cavill-leaving-witcher-role-season-4-replaced.html

 
From his Instagram post, it sounds more like a Dr Who type of ordeal, which is that the role is meant to be shared by multiple people over the years.
 
Boring series. I prefer the game. Little time hunting monsters and plenty of time occupied with Yennefer, Marigold (ugly) and the like. I couldn't go beyond the first episode of the second season.
 
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I've seen this theory about scheduling conflict with Superman but I don't think that's the case at all.

Nobody will own up to it and I certainly don't blame Cavill for not doing so but it is as simple as you would think initially: Insufficient coins were tossed to your Witcher because Netflix is no valley of plenty right now. Don't get me wrong they have money, but they don't have Superman money to pay Cavill.

As for the accuracy of the books Cavill supposedly fights over about, I could see that becoming an issue but honestly I don't really understand what his problem is: Take it from someone who actually read all 8 books years before the show started when I say there's enough of the book in there to basically be pretty accurate to them while still being you know, a TV series first and foremost.

The only thing they added is some backstory on Yennefer's character and will probably have to change the timeline a bit or lean on that backstory given the plot f the books but at it's core it is a bit abridged (It is after all 8 book we're talking about we could stretch out this to 2 or 3 seasons per book but they seem to be working through roughly a season per each book so they'll get to maybe 6 or 7 at this pace) but most of what you'd like to see from the books is definitively here.

So honestly the fact that Cavill can hint at him being "The only fan of the books and the games" seems like he actually wanted to negociate a bigger role insided the production but couldn't: Perhaps directing, being a producer, a writer or something like that and was told "No thanks Henry"

Which yes at the end, it would mean he basically wanted more money than what Netflix was willing to pay that'd be my main bet still.
 
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He was the only thing keeping this show together. And trying to put the agenda I know from the books. But Netflix is trying to make another generic sword and magic bs and that was very visible.
Oh well, new Witcher game will come up and it will be hopefully made as it should. While Netflix attempt will die, forgotten.
 
Geralt said:
Henry isn't a great actor either. He acts like himself always, whether he is Superman, Geralt or the U.N.C.L.E. Man. He is handsome only. Great actors like De Niro, Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Hopkins, etc. play on a different league.
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True, but he is charismatic enough and very likeable. And he looks like a Witcher, which I doubt they will be able to do with wish.com Chris.
 
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Screenwriters - AKA failed authors - doing what they do best and producing awful trite pap.
You only have to look at the LOTR spinoff on Amazon to see screenwriters at their truly dreadful best.

I love how they always think they can do better than well-loved stories and characters written by well-loved authors and always produce the most rancid drivel. Welcome to Hollywood!
 
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Dimitriid said:
Which yes at the end, it would mean he basically wanted more money than what Netflix was willing to pay that'd be my main bet still.
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most likely but I also find the show closer to the old Xena & Hercules shows of the late 90's 7 early 00's than to modern "fantasy" shows like GoT and Ring of Power. It wasn't going to be a dramatic star making vehicle for him but more campy role that might bite him in the behind in the long run.
 
dirtyferret said:
most likely but I also find the show closer to the old Xena & Hercules shows of the late 90's 7 early 00's than to modern "fantasy" shows like GoT and Ring of Power. It wasn't going to be a dramatic star making vehicle for him but more campy role that might bite him in the behind in the long run.
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Well I don't think that's a problem at all because Netflix just doesn't has the budget to produce a GoT or Rings of Power type show so it makes sense that they rest on a slightly more campy area but if you've read the Witcher short stories in particular, you'd realize that camp and humor was a huge part of Sapkowski's writing.

But you do bring a good point that I wanted to also respond to which is to say that money to their bank accounts is not the only currency an actor trades in: Prestige counts. This means that Cavill if he wants to be considered as a serious actor (Seems to be the case given his statements) then his objections could not be that the show is not true to the source material but that it doesn't has the tone and level of character detail and dramatic points he wants: He is still basically on a Netflix show that save very few exceptions, are almost always considered as of inherent lower quality than competing platforms like HBO and almost universally of inherent lower quality than even the campiest of Hollywood movie productions.

This is why you can't have a seriously campy and fun superhero movie anymore, why they all try to sometimes successfully (As with some Marvel titles) and sometimes very much not successfully at all (As with DC movies, with few exceptions like Joker) try to spend untold millions of dollars and plans that literally spawn decades just to make sure each character gets their own introductory movie as just backstory then another ones or even a few just to build up that character that Hollywood considers essential to be taken seriously.

This honestly, was never going to happen on Netflix no matter how much Cavill campaigned for the show: They just don't have the budget and they know their strengths as a company lie on quickly turning around shows and adaptations to react to current trends instead of financing a decades long project that ends up spending literal billions to slowly build up a household franchise: they'll be happy to jump from Squid Game to another season of Stranger things then to Dahmer then to Witcher 3 all within the spawn of maybe 2 years: just blast out the platform with content and see what trends and lean heavily on those quick turn-around shows instead of anything that a "Serious actor" like Cavill aspires to be, can talk about it on Actors Studio for 30 minutes giving long and pointlessly contrived answers to.
 
Dimitriid said:
Well I don't think that's a problem at all because Netflix just doesn't has the budget to produce a GoT or Rings of Power type show
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GoT started at $6m per episode and ended at $15m per episode which is reportedly what the house of dragons cost this year. Ring of power is an anomaly as Bezos and Amazon tossed an absurd amount of money at it but wheel of time costs $10m per episode, no clue where they spend it but not on CGI, actors or script in my opinion.

Netflix spends $30m per episode of stranger things (started out at $6), $13m per on the crown and have spent $6m plus per episode on four other series (not including witcher or other mentioned). Witcher comes in at $10m per episode so obviously they do have a budget for shows and do spend it including on the witcher.
 
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Morphine Child said:
True, but he is charismatic enough and very likeable. And he looks like a Witcher, which I doubt they will be able to do with wish.com Chris.
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I just checked, and not once did they show Geralt's face in any of the book covers until 2003. It wasn't until the first video game was released in 2007 that the common "Witcher" look became established. Here's what the first book covers looked like (Polish then French):
Ok3-Fyczenie2.webp
Le-Dernier-Voeu-2003.webp


Those are from The Last Wish, the first book in the series. It seems like Geralt's face is supposed to look uglier and evil than what's portrayed nowadays, but overall they kept the rest of the image the same. So I'm not sure how much it matters what the actor looks like, as long as he keeps a masculine figure with long, white, straight hair.
 
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d5aqoep said:
Henry was bored with the 2 main ladies. Hell even I was bored the moment I saw them. Netflix should cast a universal pretty for once. Their diverse, LGBTQ propagandist crap is leading towards downfall.
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If I met 4 gays in my entire life (almost 60) is too much. Anyway, on the movies they are everywhere. Really, they need to stop with it. I was watching the movie of Leonardo Da Vinci and he was what... gay! Even if that is true, that wasn't the most important thing in his life, you know.
 
Geralt said:
I don't know Liam acting, but his brother (or something) sucks like Thor. He is only another muscular handsome guy and not a real actor.
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Chris Hemsworth is a great actor. I've seen him in movies other than Marvel. He was great in The Cabin in the Woods.
 
Geralt said:
If I met 4 gays in my entire life (almost 60) is too much. Anyway, on the movies they are everywhere. Really, they need to stop with it. I was watching the movie of Leonardo Da Vinci and he was what... gay! Even if that is true, that wasn't the most important thing in his life, you know.
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You've met thousands of gay people in your life but based on your posts I assume most of them figured you out in about 10 seconds.
 
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"but that hasn't stopped some Twitter users from expressing outrage and disappointment over Cavill's departure"

What would the modern internet be without a little outrage over every topic?

Cavill has been great as Geralt, but he gets a lot of offers and he probably wants new challenges.
 
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