Henry Cavill won’t return to The Witcher, will star in Warhammer 40k show

Just when you thought this story couldn’t take another twist…Okay, here’s what happened in the Henry Cavill saga of 2022 so far:

• A month and change back, Netflix announced that Henry Cavill would no longer play the lead role of Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher. He’ll still be around for the upcoming third season, but after that will be replaced by Liam Hemsworth.
• Around the same time, Cavill briefly appeared as Superman in the movie Black Adam. This led to him announcing, apparently at the behest of Warner Bros. Discovery, that he was returning as the Man of Steel on a more permanent basis.
• Then, just this week, it was revealed that he would not be returning as Superman. Cavill met with new DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, and while they intend to make a new Superman movie, Cavill won’t be a part of it.

And now get ready for another swerve: according to The Hollywood Reporter, Henry Cavill is set to star in and executive produce an Amazon series based on Warhammer 40,000, the miniature war game produced by Games Workshop since the ’80s. As if Hollywood would allow Cavill to be without a high-profile job for more than a week…

What is Warhammer 40,000, aka Warhammer 40k?

Warhammer 40,000 is a tabletop role-playing game that makes use of intricate miniature figurines, the painting of which is almost as important as the playing of the game. Cavill, keeping in line with his general “hunky nerd” image — he builds PCs, he loves The Witcher games, etc. — is known to be a fan.

The Warhammer series is set 40,000 years into our future, when things on Earth suck rather a lot. Human beings are collected into the militaristic Imperium of Man, which spends most of its time fighting a variety of other races, including skeleton-like androids known as the Necron, an elvish race known as Aeldari, a race of Orks, a race of aliens called the Tyranids, and another race of nicer aliens called the T’au.

The T’au have blue skin; that’s important if you want to get to painting. Amazon hasn’t actually locked down the rights to the game yet, but it’s said to be in the final stages. Generally I don’t know if this kind of announcement would be made before the rights are in place, but I imagine Cavill’s PR people wanted to capitalize on the fervor surrounding him right now.

Henry Cavill is NOT returning to The Witcher

Also, in case this didn’t make it clear, Henry Cavill will not be returning to play Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher. Even without the Warhammer series, he had other projects lined up. He’s moved on from the Continent.

Because of the timing, I think some people assumed that Cavill left The Witcher specifically so he could play Superman, but based on everything we’ve seen, that wasn’t the case. He left The Witcher on his own, and the announcement just happened to come at the same time as the buzz about him returning as Superman. It’s not like he would have continued with The Witcher even if the opportunity to reprise his role as the Man of Steel hadn’t come along.

That said, this story has already taken so many twists I’m willing to brace for another one.

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