When it was announced that Henry Cavill had parted ways with The Witcher, it was generally assumed that he must have decided to leave the role of Geralt behind after the opportunity to return as Superman presented itself. However, a new rumor doing the rounds online points to a very different - and far more troubling - reason for the actor's departure.
According to gossip account Deuxmoi, Cavill was actually fired from the Netflix show after repeatedly being cautioned about his "toxic, gamer-bro" like behaviour. It's said that Cavill grew increasingly difficult to work with, especially to female members of the crew. There were no complaints of a sexual nature, but his language was reportedly toxic and disrespectful all the same.
Apparently, “someone on the show” compared Cavill’s alleged gamer bro radicalization to “watching someone get brainwashed by QAnon.”
It seems the final straw came when he began to override showrunner Lauren Hissrich and "get changes made last minute across the board without her knowledge."
“Eventually top brass at Netflix was tired of him costing them money with delays [and] HR investigations. The showrunner was asked to construct a potential exit for him. Netflix reached out to him personally, and he was given one final warning, and violated that warning with an email he sent to the entire writing staff, right after that meeting. That was it.”
Jezebel's report also alludes to Cavill losing the role of Superman for the same reasons, but they don't actually provide any evidence to support this, so we'd say it's most likely an assumption.
How much stock should we put in this? Well, the source has shared quite a few stories that turned out to be accurate in the past, and Hissrich has chosen her words very carefully when quizzed about Cavill's departure, suggesting that there might be more to the story than she's willing or able to discuss at this time. Even so, it's best not to take any of this at face value until we hear from those directly involved.
You can check out a transcript of the Deuxmoi podcast below.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.