Okay, but what IS a witcher? Henry Cavill explains

By nows, odds are good that you’ve heard that Netflix is making a show based on The Witcher, a series of fantasy novels by author Andrzej Sapkowski. Still new to the concept? Let the trailer do the talking:

So basically, The Witcher is about a witcher named Geralt (Henry Cavill) who travels the land fighting monsters for money, and learning that in this world, “people often prove more wicked than beasts,” according to Netflix’s official synopsis. Other important characters include Yennefer, a sorceress and the eventual love of Geralt’s life, and Ciri, a young princess who becomes his protégé.

Yeah, but what is a witcher, exactly? It’s got nothing to do with being a witch — that’s more Yennefer’s thing. Put simply, a witcher is a monster hunter. But speaking at San Diego Comic-Con, Cavill went a little deeper, talking about the brutal trials would-be witchers must undergo as children, trials that change them forever if they’re lucky enough to live through them. “Most of these children don’t survive, like 1 of 10,” Cavill reminded audience members attending the panel. “They travel the world hunting monsters for coin, and that’s their one sole purpose but they are often rejected by the world because they are not supposed to have emotions…but ultimately a bunch of badasses that kill monsters.”

But there’s a wrinkle to that “witchers don’t have emotions” line, too:

"It’s not that Witcher’s aren’t supposed to make moral decisions, it’s the myth that they don’t have emotions, but that’s what aids them in asking for coin for a monster, and if they don’t have emotions then they can negotiate as hard as they want and someone can’t use the ‘my kids’ line. Geralt is much more than that. He has this hard exterior because he believes that’s the way the world is, but in truth deep deep down there’s this man that has a belief in what the world can be."

So there you have it: witchers are seemingly emotionless monster hunters who wander the world killing creepy-crawlies in exchange for money, but even though they help keep people safe they’re generally hated because they creep everybody out.

And that’s where Netflix’s The Witcher will pick up when it drops later this year! If you’re interested in getting up to speed beforehand, we recommend reading through the books, or just looking at our impressions.

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h/t ComicBook.com