It’s a sad time on The Continent. This weekend, Netflix hit us with the shocking news that Henry Cavill will not be returning as Geralt of Rivia in season 4 of The Witcher. In his place, Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) will be donning the platinum blonde wig and twin swords.
While it’s nice to get a confirmation that The Witcher has been renewed beyond season 3, which wrapped filming with Cavill in early September and is due out summer 2023, this announcement is very bittersweet, with emphasis on the bitter. Cavill’s performance as Geralt has been the one universally praised thing about the show from longtime fans of the books and games as well as newcomers to The Witcher universe. To say he embodied the role feels like an understatement; Cavill reassured fans that he got the character, and that The Witcher was in good hands.
What will The Witcher even look like without him? It’s hard to say, and it’s always best with recasts to reserve judgment until we actually see the new actor’s performance (though I do not envy Liam Hemsworth the enormous task of stepping into this part.)
Considering how hard Cavill fought to get the role, it has become pretty clear that this was a passion project for the actor. When it was first announced that the streamer was making a Witcher series, Cavill got in touch with them before they had even started casting to express his interest in the part. After being initially passed over for the role, he was eventually invited to audition a second time after Netflix considered around 50 other White Wolf hopefuls. His agent reassured him that he didn’t need to bother if he didn’t want, since it was essentially giving Netflix a second chance. Cavill’s response was “Of course I’ll do it, it’s Geralt of Rivia.” The story of how he landed the part has become the stuff of Hollywood legend.
Even just last year, Cavill told The Hollywood Reporter that he was committed to The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich’s plan for the show to run seven seasons. “Absolutely,” he said. “As long as we can keep telling great stories which honor [author Andrzej] Sapkowski’s work.” So what changed?
As with any casting news like this, we won’t know more details until someone actually involved tells us. However, there have been enough stories about behind-the-scenes issues, coupled with other opportunities that have recently cropped up for the actor, that could help explain why he jumped ship.
Ultimately, the only person who can tell us for sure why Henry Cavill left The Witcher is Henry Cavill himself. Until then, we read the tea leaves.
Henry Cavill is returning as Superman in the DCEU
Let’s start with the easiest theory for why Henry Cavill is leaving The Witcher: he got offered another gig. Starting with 2013’s Man of Steel, Cavill played Superman/Clark Kent in a handful of DC movies, culminating with Justice League (and later, the Zack Snyder’s Justice League director’s cut). He was one of the core characters in DC’s first real attempt to create an interconnected universe of films to rival Marvel.
However, after Justice League, DC Studios head Walter Hamada decided he wanted to take Superman in a different direction, aiming to reboot the character with a screen treatment by Ta-Nehesi Coates and a Black actor in the role. Things never really got rolling on that movie, and it eventually became clear that many fans still wanted Cavill back.
Things got more interesting with the newly released Black Adam, which finally sees Cavill return as Superman in a post-credits scene that sets up future movies. The behind-the-scenes story of how that came together is fascinating; Hamada initially shot down Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s idea to have Cavill return, so he went over Hamada’s head to the higher-ups at Warner Bros.
It’s impossible to know exactly what went down, but we know that Cavill returned as Superman in Black Adam, with his end credits stinger scene being filmed a mere month before the movie’s release. Hamada stepped down as head of DC Studios after 15 years the same week Black Adam hit theaters, and a short while later it was announced that The Suicide Squad director James Gunn and Peter Safran would be taking over as co-chairs of DC Studios. This was amidst rumblings about DC Studios finally figuring out a new direction for its superhero franchises, something Johnson has talked about a lot.
Adding a bit more fuel to the fire, Cavill announced that he was officially back as Superman after Black Adam released, saying there’s a “bright future ahead” for the character. It’s widely speculated that he will be appearing in multiple more movies as the caped hero, including a possible Man of Steel 2. Dwayne Johnson has also stated his antihero Black Adam and Superman will “absolutely fight” on screen in the future.
So yes, Henry Cavill is definitely back as Superman. But would getting that offer alone be enough to make him leave The Witcher? After all, Cavill fought to become Geralt of Rivia. Would he really have just dropped the twin swords at the first opportunity to put back on a cape?
There are rumors swirling that both Cavill’s management and Warner Bros. don’t want the actor to feature in television shows anymore given the big screen opportunities rolling his way. Grace Randolph, the creator and host of Beyond the Trailer, claims, “His management feels he’s a movie star now with the #Superman cameo,” and it’s said that Warner Bros. holds to this stance as well. It’s important to note that these are only rumors; we don’t have any substantial information to back them up.
Regardless of whether Cavill’s return as Superman is the main reason or, more likely, one factor amidst several, it’s reasonable to think it was at the very least relevant to his decision to leave The Witcher. However, there might be another angle to consider…
Did Henry Cavill leave The Witcher over creative differences?
Bringing things back around to The Witcher, one other prominent bit of gossip is that Cavill’s departure was influenced by creative differences between him and the team behind the show. Obviously no one has come out and said that this was the reason, and there are quite a lot of assumptions flying around, but there’s enough solid information here to paint an interesting picture.
As we said earlier, it’s no secret that Henry Cavill is an enormous fan of The Witcher series. He’s been very open about playing the games multiple times, and once he discovered they were based on novels, he devoured all of those as well. The Witcher television show has had some issues interpreting that source material; while season 1 didn’t stray too far afield, season 2 basically shelved the book and told a story comprised of mostly original material.
Last week, former Witcher writer Beau DeMayo said that some of the writers on the series “actively disliked” the books and games, claiming they were “even actively mocking the source material” and that it was “a recipe for disaster and bad morale.” On its own, that might raise some eyebrows, but considering that Cavill’s departure was announced only days later, it’s easy to see why people might connect the two. Perhaps one of the team members suffering from bad morale was Cavill?
There have been stories of Cavill advocating to be more true to Sapkowski’s books on set. For instance, last year Hissrich talked about the death scene for Geralt’s horse Roach. A ways into season 2, Geralt’s trusty steed is slain by a chernabog. Hissrich said she initially wrote a bit of meta-comedy into the scene, making light of Roach’s death. Geralt has had a great many horses over the years, all of which he names Roach. But the comedic angle didn’t sit well with Cavill.
“Henry was so unhappy with the line,” she recalled to Polygon. “Finally I said, ‘You know what, you come up with something. I trust you, you know this material so well, you know the book so well, you don’t even have to pitch it to me.’ And he came back the next day with a beautiful speech that’s at the end of Sword of Destiny when Geralt is facing death and it’s such a pitch perfect moment.”
This isn’t the only example of Cavill pushing back creatively on set. Hissrich also shared that the actor sent her quite a few notes about ways to improve the show for season 2 during the COVID shutdown. One of the most prominent notes was that he wanted Geralt to “talk more” in season 2 — not so that he could have more lines, but so that the show could more accurately capture the character depth we get in the novels.
“A lot of the notes he was sending to me were about Geralt’s dialogue — could he, first of all, say more,” Hissrich said. “Everybody came out of season 1 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? Meanwhile, I wanted to tell the story of him becoming a father figure to Ciri. So those two things coalesced wonderfully. He opens up to get Ciri to trust him, by speaking his mind and his heart more.”
It doesn’t sound like Cavill and Hissrich had a tumultuous relationship, but it does sound like there was a push and pull behind the scenes, with Cavill wanting the show to stick closer to Sapkowski’s original tale and Hissrich being more willing to go in other directions.
The Witcher has a history of creative disputes behind the scenes
There’s another big example of a Witcher team member leaving the show, and this one we now know for certain had to do with creative differences. Veteran director Alik Sakharov (Game of Thrones, Black Sails) was originally slated to direct episodes 1, 2, 7, and 8 of The Witcher’s first season and had a big hand in creating the style of the show. He left shortly into filming, however, and Netflix had to reshoot much of the series premiere. Though Sakharov stayed quiet about it for years, late in 2020 he finally opened up about his departure, telling Forbes Russia that he was “quite critical” of his work on The Witcher.
“You see, in my perception, Eastern-European literature has a completely different pace,” Sakharov explained. “It is no coincidence that Andrzej Sapkowski has so many storylines and characters. The producers set the task of setting the adaptation at an action pace and filling it with colorful special effects. That was their vision. My vision was very different and I tried to convey it to them, giving my arguments. Unfortunately, I was not considered convincing enough, so I decided to leave the project.”
The interviewer pointed out that when they had previously spoken to Henry Cavill, the actor singled out Sakharov as “one of the few directors who has the right approach to actors.” Sakharov said that Cavill is “the best thing in The Witcher…he absolutely nailed the role.”
How exactly is this related to Cavill’s departure? The short answer is that it’s not. But it may be another piece in the puzzle that gives us a more detailed look at some of the troubles that The Witcher has had behind the scenes. When we put all these pieces together and examine how the show has often played fast and loose with its source material, at times even outright undermining its themes, it makes you think.
Did Henry Cavill leave because of creative differences? He said that he was committed to making the series “as long as we can keep telling great stories which honor [author Andrzej] Sapkowski’s work.” A failure to honor Sapkowski’s work seems to be one of the most pervasive criticisms of the series among fans. As Cavill is among them, it’s reasonable to assume his vision for the show might not have agreed with that of the producers.
Whatever the reason for Henry Cavill’s departure, the Continent is a sadder place for it. We’ll be keeping an eye peeled for any developments on this story or statements from the production itself.
Until then, we still have one last season with Cavill as Geralt of Rivia to look forward to. The Witcher season 3 is expected to hit Netflix in summer 2023.
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