The Witcher Season 3 marked the end of Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, leaving many fans brokenhearted, but the series director revealed he understood why the actor stepped away after three years.
As a fan of The Witcher books himself, fans applauded Cavill’s dedication to accurately bringing the source material to life. His overall muscular stature, sneer, and line delivery were the epitome of the White Wolf. The actor was previously vocal about staying on as Geralt until the very end. But in October 2022, he had fans in disbelief as he announced his departure from The Witcher after Season 3.
In his stead would be Liam Hemsworth as the new Geralt. Rumors circulated about why Cavill would leave the Netflix series he helped skyrocket to success. Some claimed there were debates between the actor and the writers about sticking to the original books’ storyline.
Fans watched Cavill walk off into the distance in The Witcher Season 3 finale. The Witcher director, Marc Jobst, broke down why Cavill’s exit wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
Henry Cavill set the bar high for future Witcher seasons
In an interview with ScreenRant, The Witcher director Marc Jobst briefly commented on Cavill’s exit from the series. A large part of why Jobst understood why Cavill left Geralt behind was due to the high demand of making the series. “Well, look, Henry has done three series, these are demanding shows to make, you know, they are huge,” said Jobst.
The director also explained that Cavill did almost all the stunt work himself to create authenticity and rarely had a stunt double. The Witcher also required Cavill and the crew to travel to different countries. Filming fight sequences were demanding, even for Cavill who heavily trained to play Superman, and for Mission: Impossible — Fallout.
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“When we were shooting the swordfight, for example, in the pilot, that’s a big one-shot sequence, and they’re heavy swords,” Jobst explained, “They’re not sharp, but they’re heavy, so if you get them wrong, you can seriously damage somebody.”
Looking at the circumstances, Jobst came to trust Cavill and his decision to leave The Witcher. Above all, Jobst expressed that Cavill set the bar high for the next seasons to be extraordinary.
“That’s draining on your number one, so after three series, I feel, ‘Okay, he’s brought the show into being, and if he feels like he’s done what he can, I trust him,” Jobst said, “That focus that he has, that desire to get it right, is a gift to work with because it elevates everybody to say, ‘Good enough isn’t good enough. It’s got to be fantastic.’ We all want to work like that, we all don’t wanna make something that’s good, we want to make something incredible.”
You can read how Liam Hemsworth will replace Henry Cavill in The Witcher Season 4 here, and what we know about Season 4 here.
