Henry Cavill Leaving ‘The Witcher’

The Netflix fantasy series will see a big change as Cavill departs after three seasons and Hemsworth steps in for Season 4.

Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix's 'The Witcher.' Photo: Susie Allnutt.

It’s a good news/bad news situation for fans of ‘The Witcher’, and for fans of Henry Cavill in particular.

Because Netflix has announced that the fantasy series will be back for a fourth season. That’s the good news.

The bad? Cavill will no longer be playing main character Geralt of Rivia. In a surprising move, the character is not being killed off, nor is Netflix taking the opportunity to cancel the show (not surprising given that it’s one of the streamer’s most popular series).

Instead, Liam Hemsworth will finally realize the sort of warrior role he was denied when another Hemsworth – Chris – scored ‘Thor’ back in 2011. He’s stepping into Cavill’s armor.

“My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4,” Cavill said in a statement on Instagram. “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. Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”

Hemsworth, meanwhile, was suitably enthusiastic about the new gig in his own social media statement…

“As a ‘Witcher’ fan I’m over the moon about the opportunity to play Geralt of Rivia,” he says. “Henry Cavill has been an incredible Geralt, and I’m honored that he’s handing me the reins and allowing me to take up the White Wolf’s blades for the next chapter of his adventure. Henry, I’ve been a fan of yours for years and was inspired by what you brought to this beloved character. I may have some big boots to fill, but I’m truly excited to be stepping into ‘The Witcher’ world.”

(L to R) Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth in 2010's 'The Last Song.'

Cavill has played Geralt, stern slayer of supernatural creatures since the show launched in 2019. ‘The Witcher’ itself is a story of the intertwined destinies of three individuals in the vast world of The Continent, where humans, elves, witchers, gnomes, and monsters battle to survive and thrive, and where good and evil is not easily identified. The show also stars Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan.

And while fans will have to wait until summer 2023 to see Cavill take his final stab/slash etc. at the role for Season 3, a spin-off is on the way before that.

‘The Witcher: Blood Origin’ stars Michelle Yeoh, Sophia Brown and Minnie Driver and will launch on Netflix on December 25th this year.

The decision to depart ‘The Witcher’ comes as Cavill’s movie career continues to expand in healthy directions, and he has plenty of future work on his plate. And here, we’ll offer a spoiler alert in case you haven’t seen a recent big movie.

He’s officially announced that he’ll be back as Superman following his recent – don’t say we didn’t warn you – post-credits appearance as the character, meeting Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam in the anti-hero’s eponymous recent movie.

Plans are a little less clear beyond that, though we do know that Warner Bros. Discovery has a follow-up to ‘Man of Steel’ at the script stage, which would certainly be a big way to bring his take on Krypton’s famous son back in even bigger fashion.

He’ll also most likely interact with other DC heroes, assuming there is any sort of team-up movie planned by incoming DC Studios CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran.

Henry Cavill Officially Returning as Superman.

Beyond the Man of Steel, there are other jobs he’s busy with.

In the “already filmed” category, we have his return as Sherlock Holmes opposite Millie Bobby Brown’s title character in ‘Enola Holmes 2’, landing on Netflix next week. And he’s playing the lead in new Matthew Vaughn spy movie ‘Argylle’ alongside the likes of Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Sam Rockwell, Dua Lipa, Bryan Cranston and Catherine O’Hara.

There’s a further connection to a just-announced job, as he’ll be back in spy territory for Guy Ritchie’s next film.

The director has Cavill and ‘Baby Driver’s Eiza González starring in ‘The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare’, a World War II action adventure. The script, by Ritchie and Arash Amel, is based on war correspondent and military historian Damien Lewis’ popular book of the same name.

The movie, inspired by real events, will chart British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s and James Bond creator Ian Fleming’s secret World War II combat organization. The clandestine squad’s unconventional and entirely ‘ungentlemanly’ fighting techniques against the Nazis helped change the course of the war and in part gave birth to the modern Black Ops unit.

Cavill will play the leader of the secret combat organization, while González, most recently seen in Michael Bay’s ‘Ambulance’, is a military sniper with extraordinary spy craft abilities.

Ritchie, as with Vaughn, is hoping this one might spawn a new film franchise, and according to Deadline, the cast around the main pair will be filled with colorful characters, bringing to mind Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’.

Despite the presence of power producer Jerry Bruckheimer behind the scenes, Ritchie’s latest hasn’t had the easiest journey to screens – in development at Paramount originally (where Bruckheimer has a longstanding deal), the studio has opted not to move forward with the movie, and financiers Black Bear will have the distribution rights up sale at next month’s American Film Market.

No doubt Ritchie will be keeping in mind the last time he tried to launch a spy franchise with Cavill as one of the leads and is hoping that this one has better luck than ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ in 2015.

He was also probably hoping that this would be the biggest Cavill news to happen along this weekend, but Netflix (and Cavill himself) had other ideas. Still, perhaps Netflix will look to keep its relationship with the actor strong and swoop in to add this to their roster of splashy, star-lead spy thrillers including the likes of ‘The Gray Man’ and ‘Extraction’.