The fandom surrounding the Netflix fantasy show The Witcher is interesting. Many fans who enjoyed The Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski don't think the show sticks close enough to them. Many fans of The Witcher video games from CD Projekt Red don't think the show has the depth of the games, and many people who became fans of the show first are upset that star Henry Cavill is leaving the lead role of Geralt of Rivia for the upcoming fourth season, to be replaced with Hunger Games veteran Liam Hemsworth.
Cast member Freya Allan, who plays Geralt's surrogate daughter Ciri, is out here pleading for fans to give Hemsworth a chance. We'll see what happens when The Witcher season 4 drops on Netflix sometime next year. In the meantime, we're all eager to get a glimpse of what Hemsworth looks like wearing Geralt's long white wig, battle leathers, and signature scowl. When we look at him, will we see an gruff monster slayer with a heart of gold, or will we see the interloper who's stolen the role from Henry Cavill, one of the internet's most persistent objects of parasocial affection? Who gets the fans in the divorce: the show or Cavill?
Seeing a picture of Hemsworth in costume as Geralt could help answer these questions. We don't have one yet. HOWEVER, Witcher fansite Redanian Intelligence has managed to get their hands on a photo of Hemsworth's stunt double Joel Adrian in costume as Geralt, which which you can see by clicking here.
Adrian has a robust career as a stuntman, having appeared in stuff like The Rise of Skywalker, The Batman and multiple Fast & Furious movies. He's also appeared before in The Witcher, although this looks like the first time he's actually doing stunt work as Geralt himself. He played a witcher named Hemrik in season 2 and did other stunt work in season 3.
He looks Geralt-accurate to me. The long hair is right, the battle leathers are right, the bracers are right, the grip on the sword is right...he even looks kind of unhappy and moody, which is a good fit for the Butcher of Blaviken. He even kind of looks like Liam Hemworth in the face, or at least what I imagine what Hemsworth would look like framed by long white locks, which makes sense given that they chose him as stunt double.
But we have yet to see the real thing in the flesh. But with filming on season 4 underway, I expect that will change in the near future.
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