When the fourth season of The Witcher drops on Netflix sometime next year, we will have a whole new Geralt of Rivia. Star Henry Cavill left the show after its third season for reasons still largely unknown. Replacing him will be Liam Hemsworth, known for as his roles in The Hunger Games and as Miley Cyrus' ex-boyfriend.
It's going to be a big change, and it's far from certain how fans will respond. Today, Metro posted some on set photos of Hemsworth in costume as Geralt. We're not going to post the pictures here, because no one is technically supposed to see them and Netlfix has an army of lawyers, but they're available.
The interesting thing is that Hemsworth isn't filming new scenes for season 4; it looks like he's recreating earlier scenes, like Geralt's losing fight against the sorcerers Vilgefortz (Mahesh Jadu). In another bunch of shots, he's wearing Geralt's armor from season 2.
Are they doing tests? Are they recreating scenes for flashbacks? Either way, it gives us an opportunity to see how Hemsworth looks as Geralt, and altough I know the internet is unhappy that muscle nerd king Cavill is getting replaced, I think Hemsworth looks decent. I'm happy to give him a look when The Witcher season 4 comes out in 2025.
Freya Allan teases a more "brutal" Ciri in The Witcher season 4
Hemsworth will play Geralt for seasons 4 and 5 of the show, which will mark the end of the series. Actors like Freya Allan (Ciri) and Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) will continue on in the roles they've been playing since season 1.
Allan, who you can also see in theaters right now in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, previewed Ciri's new arc while talking with Inverse. Recall that the last time we saw Ciri, she'd been warped across the map and joined up with a group of teenaged criminals called the Rats. Geralt is currently looking for her. “Ciri obviously has changed throughout, but we really see a different Ciri in this one," Allan said. "By the end of the last season she’s gone through so much that it’s the last straw. And I think she kind of ends up trying to reside in this other version of herself, and … she kind of enters a zone of just, ‘I’m just going to be brutal because I’m sick of the world being brutal to me.’”
Allan also went big picture and looked towards the final end of the series: “I was so kind of finished with it mentally," she said. "Initially the challenge was thinking that I had to do two more. It’s going to be the end of a massive chapter, which I’m excited for and ready for. But I think when I actually get to it, I’m going to be shocked at how much that hits me.”
Will fans still be watching by the end? Much of it may depend on Hemsworth. Stay tuned.
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