The Witcher is changing. After three seasons with Henry Cavill playing the lead role of Geralt of Rivia, the British actor decided to leave the show. Starting in season 4, Geralt will be played by Hunger Games veteran Liam Hemsworth.
We still don't have a firm answer on why Cavill left the epic fantasy show, but Hemsworth is officially here. You can see him reading scripts for season 4 alongside Witcher cast members like Joey Batey (Jaskier), Freya Allen (Ciri) and Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) below:
“It is with huge pride that we begin shooting our penultimate Season of The Witcher with a stellar cast, including some exciting new additions, led by Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia," said showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. "We’re thrilled to be able to bring Andrzej Sapkowski’s books to an epic and satisfying conclusion. It wouldn’t be our show if we didn’t push our family of characters to their absolute limit — stay tuned to see how the story ends.”
The first three seasons of The Witcher adapted the first four books that author Andrzej Sapkowski wrote in his Witcher Saga: The Last Wish, Sword of Destiny, Blood of Elves and The Time of Contempt. The next two seasons will round out the story by adapting the books Baptism of Fire, The Tower of Swallows and The Lady of the Lake. Which means...
The Witcher season 5 will be the last
In its press release, Netflix said that season 5 of The Witcher will be "the final chapter in Geralt’s story," which basically means it'll be the end of the show. Season 3 ended with Geralt's protégé and surrogate daughter Ciri warped far away after a brutal battle between wizards, elves and Nilfgaardian invaders on the isle of Thanedd. Now, Geralt is setting out to find her. Seasons 4 and 5 will be filmed back to back, so hopefully fans won't have to wait an ungodly amount of time between new episodes.
It'll probably be a while before we see season 4, though, if the show is just now getting rolling on production. I'd guess 2025 at the earliest.
Beyond that, even after the original Witcher show ends, it's possible the franchise could continue through spinoffs, sequels and prequels. Netflix has made several already, including the animated Nightmare of the Wolf movie and the dreadful Blood Origin prequel show. Another animated Witcher movie, Sirens of the Deep, is on track to come out later this year.
Will viewers embrace Liam Hemsworth as Geralt with enough enthusiasm to convince Netflix to keep going with this franchise? We shall see.
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