Henry Cavill hopes to play Geralt in The Witcher “for many years”

There’s a lot of promising TV coming out this fall — Watchmen is already on, His Dark Materials is around the corner, The Mandalorian will be her before you know it — but if you’re looking for some old fashioned sword-and-sorcery action, your best bet may be The Witcher, a fantasy series based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel series coming to Netflix later this year.

At the center of the show is Henry Cavill, the titular witcher, which is basically a professional monster hunter. It’s something of a dream job for Cavill, who was a fan of both the books and the video game adaptation by CD Projekt Red before he lobbied for the part. Speaking to Hobby Consolas (with a translation from Redanian Intelligence), you can tell that he has very specific ideas about how to best play this character:

"My version of Geralt is true to the books, and I’m sure it is to the game, too, because I’m a big fan of the game. But, to put it simply, Geralt’s heart is that of a traveling knight, but his exterior is jaded because of the world and his vision is obscured by the world and everyone. At first he may look badass, but when you really look, it’s the other way around. But that’s what makes him interesting: deep down he’s a knight, he’s one of those fan heroes, but from the outside he looks the other way around. And that’s one of the things I love about this character.  Because even though he is that thing, he is also different on the outside, which is extraordinary."

That theme comes up a lot in the interview, with Cavill viewing Geralt as a hero who has to present differently because of the harsh reality of his world. “The wonderful thing is that you don’t expect him to be a hero, he probably shouldn’t be a hero because of how he was treated,” he said. “But he gives wonderful examples, being a hero after all, in his actions and reactions.” Cavill even compares Geralt to the character he’s most famous for playing up to this point: Superman in the DC Universe movies:

"They are very different characters, but both are heroes. I think Geralt has the opportunity to add a little more fun, because of his nature of being an ancient hero, apolitical, controversial in his views, and nonconformist. So it can be so much more fun. But even so, both are heroes, I think Geralt is Superman at heart, but he’s something else on the outside. So it provides another layer for the audience to break and for other characters to reach him."

But Geralt is almost definitely more cynical than the Man of Steel, in part, as Cavill suggests, because of how life has treated him. When you become a witcher, you gain enhanced abilities like speed and strength. But to get there, you have to endure brutal trials that change you physically. Most do not survive. And even though witchers do important work, they’re shunned and feared by many of the people they help.

So Geralt has a tougher road to hoe than Superman. He didn’t have Superman’s friendly upbringing, either. Geralt’s mother left him in the care of the witchers when Geralt was still very young, resulting in a “lost relationship,” as Cavill calls it.

Even so, Cavill finds things in Geralt to admire:

"I think there’s a little of the person I want to be too. It’s what I want to be, I want to be this person. I also have similar doubts that Geralt has about the world. And I see something new in Geralt’s approach… It’s a hard question to answer… and very personal. I think a part of me probably resonates with him. Because there is definitely a part of his personality that gets in the way of mine."

So Cavill feels very connected to this character. And if he gets his way, he’ll be playing him for a while yet, saying that television presents an opportunity “where I can really tell Geralt’s story a long way, and I hope for many years it keeps being a dream come true.”

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There’s certainly enough material for the show to go on a while. The first season, for reference, looks to be loosely based on the first two books in Sapkowski’s series, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, both of which are more collections of short stories than they are a serialized narrative. But then there are five more books to come after that, all of which are part of one long story.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that The Witcher will stick around for years, but if the rest of the cast and crew are as committed as Cavill, the signs are looking good.

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