Of all the strange things that Netflix could have announced this week, the announcement of replacing Henry Cavill in the lead role in “The Witcher” series with Liam Hemsworth, of all people, is one of the most puzzling.
It’s not that we haven’t gotten used to changing character owners in big franchises, from James Bond to Batman, but these usually happen in the movies, not on TV, and are usually accompanied by some kind of broader move to the world: a real reboot, a new continuity (via the artistic take More about Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, separate from whoever is currently playing the Joker in the regular DC universe) or a bunch of weird gimmicks like the ones we’ve been introduced to for the last 20 years that currently rule the entertainment world. But simply replacing Geralt of Merivia, The hero of “The Witcher”, like this between season 3 and 4? But this is exactly what will happen: Henry Cavill is required to return to the Superman bodysuit somewhere in DC, but Netflix’s cute-plus-plus fantasy seriesbased on a series of Polish fantasy books (but in the public mind, mainly associated with the super-successful computer game series that followed them) wants to continue and stay alive.
In fact, it’s hard to imagine a TV series, certainly from the modern era, that simply changed a lead actor and continued to run as if we were in the disturbed casting norms of eighties soap operas. The closest example that can be scratched is “Batwoman” on the CW, where the heroine was replaced after a season, but so was the character – simply the title “Batwoman” was transferred to another character, as is customary in the genre. So why does it happen here, and also in a series that enjoyed a relatively warm reception (even if it did not become, perhaps, the hit that Netflix would like to receive here), when by and large the most popular thing in the series is Cavill’s acting?
It is difficult to answer this without getting carried away by speculation, because Netflix jealously guards what is happening behind their scenes (in every respect – business, production, algorithmic). It is customary in productions of this type, which are planned to run for a long time, that the main actors sign non-short contracts, in order to prevent them from turning the potential success of the series into a lever of pressure on the production. So why is Cavill dating anyway? First of all, because he is returning to DC as Superman, where he is waiting, with all due respect to Netflix (and the character of Geralt, there is no reason to doubt the reliability of his declarations about his sympathy for her – Cavill is known as a serious gamer, as a fan of the series, and it is clear that he did a job In-depth preparation for the character, especially when it comes to how he moves and fights), a much more impressive check.
But that’s probably not the whole picture. Cavill has spoken many times about his desire to stay true to the books and games, saying in an interview with ScreenRant that he pushed to make Geralt “more intellectual, more of a philosopher, with an emotional side, not just a grumpy type.” On the other hand, in recent days a screenwriter named Beau DeMayo, who worked on the series in the past, said on his Instagram that “the writers didn’t know or didn’t like the books and games (and even mocked them)”, which created a negative atmosphere in the writers’ room. Does this mean there was drama behind the scenes? It’s hard to know for sure, but it’s a possibility. To be sure, the casting of Liam Hemsworth, the younger of Cavill – but not by enough years to indicate a time jump in the plot (Geralt, for all sorts of fantastic reasons, ages very slowly, so it would be easy to jump back and forth in time with the same actor too, if that was the case need) – whose main achievements are a well-known last name and one of the main roles in the “Hunger Games” series, indicates that the future direction of “The Witcher” is action and muscles. It’s not exactly the dream casting of many game fans, Mads Mikkelsen, who could have given the character a dramatic edge. On the other hand, if they were interested in a dramatic twist, it seems that Cavill would have stayed in the picture at all.
Still, there is another significant element in the picture, and that is Netflix’s partnership with CDPR, the Polish gaming company that owns the rights to “The Witcher” and was a co-creator of the series. Just last week, in an unprecedented move, it announced no less than five (!) new games in the franchise that it intends to release in the coming years, and such an ambitious move must surely also come with a long-term plan regarding television (it’s not their only collaboration either: CDPR also made another game of theirs, “Cyberpunk 2077”to a successful anime series on Netflix Which made it to the list of the 20 best series on the screen today). The Witcher has also already received a full-length anime film on Netflix, a mini-series prequel to the plot of the series (which takes place over 1000 years before the events of the main series) is due to arrive on the service in December, and according to Netflix, there are also plans for a series for the entire family under the same brand (maybe is also drawn). With so much money, plans and jobs hanging in the balance, what is one actor, even if he’s in the lead role? As Netflix may well find out after the upcoming season of “The Sorcerer” (the third, the last one starring Cavill, should be released in mid-2023) – quite a bit. Quite a bit at all.