It should regretfully come as no surprise that Henry Cavill is leaving because he has been teasing about his discontent with The Witcher for a while. Although it was a bit of a dream come true for Henry to get the chance to play the role of Geralt, he still has to leave.
He revealed this in a 2019 interview via Hobby Consolas
“I really enjoy playing these kinds of games and reading these kinds of books in my spare time,” “I don’t consider it a job. For me, it is more like an extraordinary opportunity to live my childhood and adult life fantasies“.
This has shocked people the most about the recent announcement that Cavill will leave The Witcher after season 3.
Actually, Cavill has been implying his discontent with Netflix’s The Witcher series for a while. He enjoys both the books and the video games that inspire them. He obviously wanted to be a part of an accurate adaptation that captured all he cherished about Andrzej Sapkowski’s books and those vintage video games. But, conversely, the Witcher feels like it’s diverging from the story Cavill loves, and the creative team behind it has shown little respect for the original material.
Did The Witcher’s Writers Drove Henry Away?
Cavill had previously agreed to the seven-season plans for The Witcher. However, he had made it obvious in interviews that there was a catch. He stressed that his involvement would only last “as long as we can keep presenting fantastic stories that honor [author Andrzej] Sapkowski’s art” (via The Hollywood Reporter). This issue had come up repeatedly, most recently when Cavill questioned whether his character Geralt may collaborate with other Witchers more in upcoming seasons.
“It all depends on how much the story allows,” he observed in an interview published on The Witcher’s YouTube channel. “I’m a huge fan of the books and staying loyal to them, and it’s about making sure that story happens without too much in the way of diversions or side things going on to muddy the waters.”
The Consequences
But it has long been evident that The Witcher’s creative team didn’t have the same mindset. The Witcher season 2’s conclusion diverged significantly from Sapkowski’s books, complete with a key antagonist—the Deathless Mother—who doesn’t appear at all in the books. Recently, author Beau DeMayo gave fans a rare behind-the-scenes look, explaining that he had quit The Witcher partly due to several of his fellow authors’ attitudes toward the games and novels. It’s understandable that a fan like Cavill would be dissatisfied with this approach and working atmosphere, as DeMayo said on an Instagram story that “some of [them] were not [fans] or openly loathed the novels and games (even aggressively insulting the source material).”
The casting of Robbie Amell as a prominent elven character who doesn’t even appear in Sapkowski’s works suggests that The Witcher season 3 will depart from the books. The writing staff of The Witcher and showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich presumably have no intention of strictly following the source material moving forward. It has resulted in creative disagreements that have left Cavill feeling like he can no longer be a part of the popular Netflix series. Consequently, future seasons of The Witcher will become more contentious, which will undoubtedly enrage some fans.
The Rock May Have Assisted Cavill’s departure.
Cavill’s Black Adam appearance is rumored to have resulted from Dwayne Johnson negotiating with Walter Hamada, the head of DC Films, to get his way. It’s certainly plausible that by giving Cavill a chance to rejoin the Superman franchise and play the Superman he had always envisioned, he also helped persuade Cavill to leave The Witcher. It’s noteworthy, though, that Cavill will also be working with Guy Ritchie on the World War II spy thriller The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Cavill will have the chance to portray James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming in this. Moreover, director Ritchie hopes the movie will mark the start of yet another new series.
All of this gives the impression that Henry Cavill received some extremely alluring chances just as The Witcher was moving in a direction he didn’t like. The simplest course of action was to leave the group, and Liam Hemsworth replaced Cavill as Geralt beginning with season 4. For fans of The Witcher on Netflix, the revelation is disheartening and casts questions on the franchise’s overall future. However, Cavill’s choice is very understandable.
