Fans are quite happy that The Witcher season 3 has been wrapped up, but we are still in surprise about Henry Cavill’s exit from the show. As the titular Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter with supernatural abilities, the actor has quite literally led the series throughout the years.
We still don’t know why Cavill left the Netflix show, even though quite a bit of time has elapsed since the 2022 news that Liam Hemsworth would take over as Geralt. Javier Grillo-Marxuach, the writer and executive producer of the show talked about the casting changes.
Javier Grillo-Marxuach on Fan’s Concern of Recasting Henry Cavill
Back in October 2022, Henry Cavill announced his decision to leave the show, saying in a statement, “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.”
Audiences were surprised by Cavill’s announcement of leaving because The Witcher was one of Netflix’s most popular shows and a passion project for Cavill. Cavill has already spoken about his love of The Witcher games, especially its source material, the books.
The star himself has actively fought to keep The Witcher on Netflix true to the source material. “I’m a huge fan of the books and staying loyal to them,” reiterated Cavill on The Witcher’s YouTube channel. “It’s about making sure that story happens without too much in the way of diversions or side things going on to muddy the waters.”
“For those who claim that we don’t read/respect the books – the writers’ draft of The Witcher 306 ABSOLUTELY began with Dykstra holding Geralt at knife point as he pissed into a plant. I have the pages to prove it!” On July 28, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who is the show’s executive producer, tweeted that appeared to be referring to one of the more peculiar moments in Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels.
However, possibly his most intriguing remark came in response to another fan’s claim that some of the criticism was caused by “rumors & flat-out lies from casting changes of Geralt.”
Grillo-Marxuach addressed this with a cryptic response, tweeting back: “Also, those of us who know what really went down behind the scenes know what really went down behind the scenes. I stand behind the work, and my boss, 100%.”
Even if he didn’t go into further detail about what happened, the writer’s response is nonetheless intriguing.
Why is Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher?
In 2019, The Witcher made its Netflix debut and rapidly rose to the peak of the streamer’s most-watched shows, primarily because of Henry Cavill’s captivating performance as lead Geralt. Audiences are now in disarray after Cavill announced that season 3 of The Witcher would be his last.
According to Redanian Intelligence, Cavill had previously planned to depart The Witcher after season 2 because he and the producers “weren’t seeing eye to eye” over Geralt’s overall role in the series.
The actor previously stated during the season 2 press tour that he was pushing for Geralt to be more faithful to the books. Although no one involved directly has confirmed it, this may have also played a part in it.
“It’s important for me to have the character be three-dimensional,” the actor told Philstar in December 2021.
“And it’s tricky to do, as I was saying earlier, because there’s a certain vision and there’s a certain set storyline and plot. And so, it was about me trying to find Geralt’s place within that. All of my asks and requests were along the lines of just being faithful to the source material.”
Moreover, fans initially speculated the actor was quitting the show to concentrate on the DC Universe, but that theory was dispelled after James Gunn, the Guardians of the Galaxy series director, the new head of DC Studios under Warner Bros., and the director of Superman: Legacy, spoke about the scenario and said, “Among those on the slate is Superman. In the initial stages, our story will be focusing on an earlier part of Superman’s life, so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill.”
Whatever, it’s not easy to see The Witcher show keep running without Henry Cavill being the lead. Liam Hemsworth may turn out to be a good replacement, but Cavill not being Geralt seems impossible to envision.
Source: Collider
