Why Is Henry Cavill Leaving ‘The Witcher?’

Games Why Is Henry Cavill Leaving ‘The Witcher?’ Erik Kain Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about video games, entertainment and culture. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Oct 31, 2022, 08:00am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Witcher is losing its star. Credit: Netflix The big news this weekend for fantasy fans and Netflix subscribers is the departure of Henry Cavill from The Witcher, a show he championed. Cavill, a massive fan of the books and video games that inspired the Netflix show, seemed born to play the part of Geralt of Rivia—which is odd given he also seemed born to play the role of Clark Kent / Superman.

It’s to that role that he is now returning after Season 3 of The Witcher , handing the reins and white wig over to Liam Hemsworth in what can only be described as the most bizarre, most crushing recasting in modern memory. As I noted previously, I don’t think Netflix ’ s The Witcher will survive this, and that’s not a knock against Hemsworth. It’s just too radical a change.

It will be extremely jarring. Along with the rest of The Witcher fandom, I’ve been mulling over what could possibly cause Cavill to walk away from a dream project like this. The obvious answer, of course, is that he’s returning to the DCU as the Man of Steel.

Superman is a big deal, a time-consuming project and one that likely pays better than The Witcher. But news of his return to DC is very fresh. “I wanted to make it official: I am back as Superman,” Cavill posted to Instagram on October 24th.

“Thank you for your support and thank you for your patience. I promise it will be rewarded. ” MORE FOR YOU $100M Magic: Why Bruno Mars And Other Stars Are Ditching Their Managers Cabot Delves Into Outside Golf Management With Two Vegas Courses And Two Others Near Casinos What To Expect From Electronic Arts’ Q2? This came alongside Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s admission that he “fought for years” to bring Cavill back as Superman.

“We fought for years to bring you back,” Johnson wrote on Instagram a week later . “They always said no. But for [producers] Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia & myself ‘no’ was never an option.

We can’t intelligently & strategically build out our DC Universe without the greatest superhero of all time. Because for us, the fans will always come first. ” The timeline is a bit murky here, but Cavill’s cameo in the mid-credits scene of Black Adam was only filmed a month ago .

The Rock’s part of the scene was shot first and they edited it together in the hopes that Warner Bros would approve Cavill’s return, which only happened when The Rock went behind then-DCEU chief Walter Hamada’s back. We can assume that this all came together within the last six to eight weeks. So when did Cavill decide to leave The Witcher ? That’s a big question that we may never know the answer to.

We can only make an educated guess. His departure came alongside news that Geralt had already been recast as Liam Hemsworth. We can safely assume that there was some period between Cavill telling Netflix he was stepping down and the decision to carry on with the series and recast Geralt.

We can also safely assume that the casting took some time—I doubt they had Hemsworth in their back pocket at this point. If they did, then Cavill’s decision to leave was known even earlier. All of this suggests—though doesn’t prove—that Cavill was planning to leave the role prior to getting the greenlight on Superman.

Granted, the British actor has been hoping to return to the role for some time now, but it seems likely he was at least one foot out The Witcher door when the Superman news came down. “The character means so much to me,” Cavill said in a recent interview about the Man of Steel. “It’s been five years now.

I never gave up hope. It’s amazing to be here now talking about it again. There is such a bright future ahead for the character.

I’m so excited to tell a story with an enormously joyful Superman. ” This suggests to me that Cavill was already dissatisfied with the direction of the show before he was confirmed as Superman and had likely already put in notice before being given the go-ahead at Warner Bros/DC. Cavill is a huge fan of The Witcher books and video games, and as the show drifted further and further away from the source material, there were murmurings that Cavill was unhappy .

A recent writer/producer on the show recently publicly stated that other writers on the show “actively disliked” the source material. Given what a huge fan of that source material Cavill is, it’s not hard to put two and two together. So here’s my theory: Had Netflix put people in charge of the show who were as passionate and knowledgeable about the show as Henry Cavill, he might not be leaving the role.

In fact, had the writers and producers of The Witcher been superfans like Cavill and hewed as close to the source material as possible with a screen adaptation, I’m willing to bet that Superman himself would not have been strong enough to pull Cavill away. This was a passion project and one he’d earned a lot of brownie points for from fans. Sure, Superman will take a lot of time, but actors find ways to work around busy schedules and multiple projects all the time.

Walking away from The Witcher is a big deal, and I just don’t think he would have left had the show been closer to his own vision of what a Witcher adaptation should be. In other words, I think it’s both Superman and his dissatisfaction with the show’s creators that led to this point. What a terrible shame.

The lesson here for Hollywood is the same as the disastrous first season of The Rings Of Power: Hire people who want to make adaptations that are as true as possible to the source material. Hire fans. Hire people who have a deeper commitment to crafting an honest adaptation than to political messaging or “modern audiences.

” It may be a risk, but try making these shows for the fans who have been here this whole time. New audiences will find their way to the work. Watch my video on Cavill’s departure below : As always, I’d love it if you’d follow me here on this blog and subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can stay up-to-date on all my TV, movie and video game reviews and coverage.

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