The Witcher drama that began with last year’s October 30th announcement on Henry Cavill’s Instagram has yet to die down. The actor, then soaring on the DC Black Adam premiere and his Superman comeback found sympathy with his expansive fandom and their immediate inclination to find the writers guilty of the apparent tragedy. Losing one of the most treasured actors of the epic fantasy genre was an unforeseen event and one that did not make the cards for anyone when 2022 began.
But the announcement was soon to be followed by discursive debates ranging from Cavill’s aversion to the diversion of the series from the source to the lead actor’s toxic behavior on the sets of The Witcher.
Henry Cavill’s Witcher Exit Finds New Cause to Rally Behind
In late 2022, a leaked transcript from the Deux U podcast found Henry Cavill’s love for gaming a serious problem that extended to his behavior toward women on set and affected the smooth functioning of productions. Cavill’s devotion to gaming and novels had in a large part provided him with the drive to advocate for The Witcher and his intrinsic knowledge of the show has led to him being dubbed as a walking encyclopedia.
But the leaks did the job well by raising flags all over social media, which could have been why the podcast transcript was released in the first place – to initiate a conversation into Henry Cavill’s alleged problematic traits. People, however, criticized the claims about Cavill’s gaming addiction and his “game bro language” creating a toxic workspace on set, especially since the actor has been very vocal about his love for literature and gaming from the get-go and has attributed these genres as a major passion of his, not a poorly kept secret.
The transcript in a major part works to reveal the insider’s aversion to the gaming community and a disregard for those who are invested in the genre when claims were made that Cavill’s “obsessive” behavior made it seem like “working with any other addict.” But these claims were never backed up by the show’s cast and crew or production and were hence eventually disregarded.
A YouTuber has recently pointed out that the reason behind Cavill’s exit was the writers’ hatred for the game and the belief that the show would deviate massively from the source material in the coming seasons. Season 2 was already received poorly by critics and viewers alike, and it was traced back to the writers creating entirely new arcs and badly motivated villains that never existed in the original Sapkowski mythology.
Witcher Fans Back Henry Cavill, Writers Become Scapegoats
It’s not news that the writers involved with the corpus of the live-action Netflix adaptation of The Witcher had a massive role to play in what went down in October 2022. When Henry Cavill quit the sets of the epic fantasy series, not a moment passed ever since without the fandom and critics not holding the writers accountable for the actor’s decision. The series, which premiered in 2019, was an instant hit but its follow-up season failed to live up to the reputation of the literature as well the debut due to the radical shift away from the source material.
At the time, reports that originated from Beau DeMayo, known for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021), and his claims that the show’s writers “actively disliked” the Andrzej Sapkowski books contributed in major part to the fan outcries about the removal of the writers and retrieval of Henry Cavill. The claims have since been rebutted by the series showrunner and there have been no further statements regarding what went down behind the scenes of The Witcher set since the lead actor’s exit.
The Witcher is now streaming on Netflix.
Source: YouTube | Recap Focus
