- Henry Cavill announced he was leaving Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher after three seasons in 2022.
- Liam Hemsworth has since taken on Henry’s original role, Geralt of Rivia, in the show’s fourth season.
- The Witcher’s top executive producer, Lauren Hissrich, recently revealed the reason behind Henry’s departure during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
- Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan opened up about Liam Hemsworth joining the show.
Over the years, Henry Cavill has quite literally led Netflix’s The Witcher, playing Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter with supernatural abilities. After reprising his role for three seasons, Henry announced that it would be his last back in October 2022.
"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," he wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. At the time, the actor also gave some insight into who his replacement on The Witcher is moving forward with the actor saying that Liam Hemsworth would be "taking up the mantle of the White Wolf".
He added: "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.”
We’re thankful that the head honchos over at Netflix were committed to continuing the franchise, with the new episodes dropping on the streaming site on 30th October.
But we were also human (read: nosy) and wanted know the reason behind Henry’s decision to leave.
Luckily, the show’s top executive producer, Lauren Hissrich, spoke to Entertainment Weekly and gave a much-needed update on Henry’s departure.
Here's everything you need to know.
Why did Henry leave The Witcher?
Hissrich admitted that the conversation had gone on "for a while," as Henry "personally wanted to end his time as Geralt."
"He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to," she told EW. "And for us, you don’t want to hold someone and force them to be doing something that they don’t want to do. I think that’s why it felt like a really symbiotic decision."
At the time, rumours suggested that HC left because of creative differences when it came to his vision for the character. Being an avid gamer (like, he legit built his own gaming computer), Henry reportedly wanted to honour the original source material as much as possible. However, Beau DeMayo - a former producer and writer on The Witcher - has gone on the record and dished that some writers on the series "actively disliked" both Andrzej Sapkowski's books and CD Projekt Red's games.
In 2020, Hissrich also admitted that she tried not to hire writers who are purists of the source material, saying: "We need writers who are close, but not too close. Who love the world, but aren’t afraid to question it. Who are fans, but are willing to step back and open their minds, in order to bring their beloved world to our real (big) one. I hope we did that."
Fans saw these nuances come to light ahead of the release of season two, when Hissrich revealed Henry had sent her notes about Geralt’s dialogue. "A lot of the notes he was sending to me were about Geralt’s dialogue - could he, first of all, say more," the showrunner told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021. "Everybody came out of season one laughing and loving Geralt’s fuming. But Henry was saying that when you read the books, you spend a lot of time in Geralt’s head. So how can we put that on the page?"
In a subsequent convo with Philstar, the actor elaborated on the sitch, revealing: "It’s important for me to have the character be three-dimensional. 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."
What has Liam Hemsworth said about joining The Witcher season 4?
As for Hemsworth stepping into the role? He knows he has big shoes to fill.
"It came out of nowhere," he told EW of Netflix’s initial offer. "I was as surprised as anyone."
He added: "I’m a massive fan of Henry’s, and I’m a fan of what he did in the show."
"The other really great thing about Liam is he takes this really, really seriously," Hissrich said of the streamer’s recast. "I think he knew that he was stepping into big shoes. It was really important to him to have certain things [for] continuity - and also certain things that he could invent so that his Geralt could stand on his own two feet."
Speaking in an interview with Cosmopolitan UK, Anya Chalotra (who plays Yennefer) and Freya Allan (who is behind the character of Ciri) opened up about what it was like to have Hemsworth on set.
"He's amazing, coming on and just giving everything everyday and just embracing this world completely," Chalotra said.
"I just kept thinking, 'I hope he's okay' because I think it's such a difficult thing to do. The position he was in was difficult in many ways you know when you're taking on a character that's been played by someone else for three seasons," Allan added. "And you know he hasn't had scenes with us to kind of like... because we use all of that. I use season one, season two, season three - all the tools. And he wouldn't have had that so I was just hoping he was okay."
The Witcher season 4 is available to stream on Netflix
