After portraying Geralt of Rivia for three seasons, it's hard to imagine anyone other than Henry Cavill as the character. But for The Witcher season 4, Cavill stepped away from the role due to creative differences and scheduling conflicts (at the time, he thought he was returning to play Superman in the DCEU). As a result, the fantasy show recast its Geralt with The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth.
Hemsworth is becoming the White Wolf with immense weight on his shoulders. The level of expectation is off the scale, but he had the steadfast support of showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who actually sought him out first as soon as the team were in the process of recasting Geralt. "He has a soul that he brings into the role," she said in a recent interview with IGN. "To have that present even through action scenes when he's fighting monsters, and it's the same thing that's present when he's having conversations with Ciri or with Yennefer, that was a really special thing that we were able to capture."
For Hemsworth himself, stepping into the role was no small undertaking. In fact, he was initially hesitant to accept the job. "When I first got approached, I was pretty reluctant at that point. [I had] a lot of concerns and questions about it all," the actor told Radio Times. "I was a big fan of the video game and then I watched the series, and was a fan of the series, and I read the books."
His main reluctance came from entering a show with an established fandom. "Just the situation [of] coming into a series that's already established a really passionate fanbase. I appreciate these fans, and I appreciate the fact that they care so much about it," he said. "I think if I wasn't a fan myself, if I didn't care about it, I wouldn't have come on board. The reason I came on board was because I was a fan, and because I thought that I could do justice to this character. I thought that could bring an interesting interpretation to this part of the story."
Despite being in its penultimate season, Hemsworth found that he picked up playing Geralt when he was already in a state of change. "I think what excited me the most was where Geralt is at this part of the story – his emotional state, and where he's heading. I think he's in a very real place of change and a place that I don't think he's been in often in his life," he added.
The Witcher season 4 releases on Netflix on October 30, just in time for Halloween!