When Henry Cavill stepped away as The Witcher's Geralt of Rivia, it was immediately announced that The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth would be taking over for him.
As with any recast, the response from fans was mixed, and many fans were unhappy to see Cavill lose another iconic character after DC Studios decided to cast David Corenswet as Superman's lead (there had been rumblings for a while that he was unhappy with the direction of the series).
According to showrunner Lauren Hissrich, though, the Man of Steel star had made his intentions to leave the show clear some time before the announcement was made.
"He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to," she told Entertainment Weekly (via SFFGazette.com). "And for us, you don’t want to hold someone and force them to be doing something that they don’t want to do. I think that’s why it felt like a really symbiotic decision."
Hissrich went on to say that even without Cavill, they knew The Witcher would continue (Hemsworth will play Geralt right up until the series ends with season 5). "We never really had serious conversations about the show not continuing. The show is bigger than one actor. It’s bigger than me. There’s a book series, there’s a video game. We are the third entry into this. So 'The Witcher' lives whether or not we go."
For Hemsworth, he decided to take a social media break for "most of last year." The actor explained, "There was quite a bit of noise and I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction. I dealt with that sort of thing in the past a lot and, you know, at the end of the day, I love making movies and I love telling stories and acting."
"I just don’t want any of that to affect my way of telling the story that I’m trying to tell," Hemsworth noted. "I jumped off social media and the internet most of last year."
Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer, admits that she broke down upon learning that Cavill wouldn't be back as Geralt. "I remember it so vividly. It really impacted me. We were so bonded to these people, and to lose such an important member of the team. I’ve put everything into this character. I started [‘Witcher’] having not much work under my belt, and this show means the world to me. So it hurt."
While it's a shame that Cavill's time as Geralt ended, an argument could be made that it would be so much worse for his departure to have ended the series completely.
The Witcher isn't the Game of Thrones-beater that Netflix hoped for when the show was first launched in 2019, but it has a loyal fanbase that definitely wants to see the show get a proper send-off.
In The Witcher season 4, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri find themselves separated by a raging war and countless enemies. As their paths diverge and their goals sharpen, they stumble on unexpected allies eager to join their journeys. And if they can accept these found families, they just might have a chance at reuniting for good.
The cast includes Liam Hemsworth as Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg, Freya Allan as Princess Cirilla of Cintra, Joey Batey as Jaskier, Laurence Fishburne as Regis, Meng’er Zhang as Milva, Sharlto Copley as Leo Bonhart, and James Purefoy as Skellen.
The Witcher season 4 premieres on Netflix on October 30.