Liam Hemsworth told Entertainment Weekly that he stopped using social media for “most of last year” after Netflix announced he was taking over the role of Geralt in “The Witcher” from fan favourite Henry Cavill, who headlined the fantasy series for three seasons. Hemsworth will now be the show’s protagonist for its final two seasons, starting with the launch of Season 4 in October.
“There was quite a bit of noise and I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction,” Hemsworth said about the fan reaction to his casting. “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. I jumped off social media and the internet most of last year.”
Fans were devastated to hear that Cavill was not going to continue with the series. The “Man of Steel” star tried to get ahead of any fan backlash by immediately giving Hemsworth his blessing. As Cavill wrote in a statement at the time: “In my stead, the fantastic Mr. Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf. As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men.”
“The Witcher” series creator and showrunner Lauren Hissrich told EW that talks of Cavill’s exit from the series were happening “for a while” before Hemsworth’s recasting was made official.
“He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to,” the showrunner said of the show’s original star. “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.”
Anya Chalotra, who plays Yennefer on the series, “cried” when she found out about Cavill’s exit, adding: “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.”
But Cavill’s exit was never going to be the end of “The Witcher.” As Hissrich explained: “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.”
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“The Witcher” Season 3, which was released on Netflix in two parts in June and July 2023, was Cavill’s final outing as the character. Hemsworth officially debuts when Season 3 streams Oct. 30.
From Variety US