The Witcher returns to Netflix October 30, with a rather large change for fans to anticipate. TV stars don’t often just up and leave their shows, especially when the show is a hit and they play the title character. But that’s what happened back in October 2022, when Liam Hemsworth was announced as the new Gerald of Rivia, replacing Henry Cavill.
The shocking recasting (awkwardly) came before Cavill’s final season aired in summer 2023, the show’s third. While the show was in production on season four in April 2024—its first with Hemsworth—Netflix revealed The Witcher would come to an end after its fifth season.
News of Cavill’s departure was accompanied by a warm post on social media, in which he said good-bye while also welcoming Hemsworth aboard. While fans hoped that maybe Cavill’s sudden about-face from being DC’s Superman (that’s a whole other thing) might mean he’d be returning to play Geralt after all, that obviously didn’t happen. Hemworth was in place. He had the wig on and everything.
Behind the scenes, team Witcher had almost as difficult a time with Cavill’s departure as fans did, it seems. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer Lauren Hissrich said, “He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to. 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.”
Co-stars Anya Chalotra (Yennefer) and Freya Allan (Ciri) were surprised, with Chalotra saying “I cried” when she heard the news.
Hemworth told EW that the offer to play Geralt “came out of nowhere,” though Hissrich said he was the first potential star they spoke to when looking for a Cavill replacement. (She also revealed there were never “serious conversations” about ending the show with Cavill’s departure, because “the show is bigger than one actor.”)
As for the hubbub once the casting was revealed, Hemsworth said, “I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction … 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.”
Hemsworth hopes fans won’t compare his performance to what came before, but that’s 100% what everyone is going to do. It’s inevitable. And, as Hissrich told EW, certain aspects of Cavill’s Geralt will echo into season four. “It was really important to [Hemsworth] to have certain things [for] continuity,” she said. “And also certain things that he could invent so that his Geralt could stand on his own two feet.”
Added Chalotra, “You’ve got two very different people leading the show, and we’re so impacted by that energy. It brings in a new energy, too.”
Read much more about The Witcher‘s upcoming season at Entertainment Weekly. Season four arrives October 30 on Netflix.