Fans of the Netflix show The Witcher got bad news when it was announced a few days ago that the actor who plays Geralt of Rivia, Henry Cavill, was leaving the show. A new actor will take over the role and continue the story that Netflix started a few years ago.
Many fans don’t like the news. Some have even said they won’t watch the show after the third season, which will be the last one with Cavill. Others don’t understand why the actor chose to leave a role he loved so much as he demonstrated in each of the interviews he gave talking about the role.
When you remember that Henry Cavill himself said a few days earlier that he would play Superman/Clark Kent again in the DC Universe, the answer seems clear (in fact – Black Adam spoilers – he has already made his return to the big screen). But it looks like that wasn’t the only reason the actor left the Netflix show. His love for the original franchise seems to have been a bigger factor.
Since Henry Cavill was chosen to play Geralt of Rivia, he has worried about telling the stories from Andrzej Sapkowski’s books and games in the right way of which he is also a huge fan. In an interview, he said, “I’m a big fan of the books and staying true to them. It’s about making sure the story happens without a lot of distractions or side things coming in to muddy the waters.” But it seems like this wasn’t a top priority for the writing team, and even though Cavill did a lot to combine the important parts of the books, he wasn’t very happy with the results. He wouldn’t even be the only one. Many fans of the series were upset that the movies didn’t stick very closely to the books, and critics weren’t too sure about how good the movies were.
The Reasons
Beau DeMayo was a writer for the first season. He recently posted on social media about how “some of the writers weren’t fans and didn’t like the books and games, sometimes making fun of the source material,” which made him leave the team.
Especially season 3, it seems like there will be a lot of things that aren’t in the books or games, like new characters. Also, according to reports, the showrunner, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, said that she has no plans to stick to the original story, which may have made Cavill lose interest.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz a few days ago, Cavill talked about his work ethic and seemed to be talking about the above. “It comes down to faith. If you think what you are doing is right, you will be able to keep doing it. It’s also important to know that you should stop doing the wrong thing when you realize you’re doing it. You can’t go on, because that way leads to something bad.
On the other hand, it looks like Dwayne Johnson saved the day. Helping to bring him back as Superman gave him an easy way out of something he no longer enjoyed, and it looks like he now has high hopes for a happier Clark Kent than what we have seen so far.
