“And now, his watch is over.” Oh wait, that’s the wrong TV series. We always knew this day would come, but did anything really prepare us for Henry Cavill’s departure from The Witcher? After three seasons and 24 episodes, the former Man of Steel is laying down his sword as Geralt of Rivia.
While The Witcher started out strong as the ‘next’ Game of Thrones, rumbles of behind-the-scenes troubles and claims the writers abandoned the source material of author Andrzej Sapkowski didn’t help. Review scores have been tumbling, and we head into Season 4, it’s fair to say The Witcher is walking with a limp.
How did Henry Cavill exit The Witcher?
Click to enlargeConsidering The Witcher Season 3 was supposed to be all about Geralt’s swansong, he didn’t really do a lot. Geralt spends most of the final two episodes on a sick bed and under the care of the dryads, while he and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) are separated from Ciri (Freya Allan).
We finally get something that honours Sapkowski, as events play out similarly to 1995’s Time of Contempt – albeit in a more underwhelming fashion. Yennefer conveniently heals Geralt, he says his goodbyes to her, and then heads to Nilfgaard to free Ciri from the clutches of Emhyr and Vilgefortz.
Geralt is wrongly searching for the faux Ciri, while the real one is slumped in a tavern with the group known as The Rats (cleverly setting up the upcoming spin-off). At least Cavill gets one last fight as Geralt, which is peak The Witcher but feels like a case of too little, too late.
So there we have it, Geralt (in his current form) walks off into some fog with Jaskier (Joey Batey) and Milva (Meng’er Zhang). It’s the latest blow to the series, and we can’t help but feel The Witcher should’ve taken a leaf out of Doctor Who’s book to introduce Liam Hemsworth as Cavill’s replacement.
Fans slam The Witcher Season 3 ending
At least Geralt’s cliffhanger ensures we’ll be tuning in for the Season 4 premiere to see Hemsworth, but when popular fan site Redanian Intelligence shared Cavill’s first and last scenes, the internet soon exploded with rage about what could’ve been. “Wasted opportunity to have a GoT level cultural phenomenon type show,” fumed one.
Another added, “Far as I’m concerned, that’s the series finale. What Season 4? Nah, show got cancelled. That’s how I choose to view it, while someone simply wrote, “And thus, the death of the tv show.” It further hammers home problems The Witcher Season 4 will have, with many vowing to boycott already.
One irate fan concluded, “This really sucks… I don’t want to take anything away from the new casting, but Henry was literally perfect for this role… it really is a shame that he’s not coming back.” It’s a tough baton for Hemsworth to pick up, but with Netflix moving forward with The Witcher Season 4 and 5, we have to accept the inevitable.