Warning! Soilers for The Witcher season 4 ahead!After seeing Liam Hemsworth’s Geralt in The Witcher season 4, I wish he had just been in the series from the start. Of course, this isn’t to say that Henry Cavill didn’t do a great job. It was clear from the first episode back in 2019 that this actor was the perfect Geralt. It’s for precisely this reason that Cavill’s choice to leave The Witcher was so upsetting, and why Hemsworth has been at the center of such significant scrutiny.
I was right there with everyone else in my skepticism about The Witcher season 4’s recasting. It was difficult to imagine Hemsworth as the legendary White Wolf, and even more challenging to predict how Netflix might handle the transition from one actor to the next. However, now that I’ve officially watched all eight episodes of The Witcher‘s most recent season, I have to admit I’m rather surprised.
Liam Hemsworth Would Have Been A Great Geralt From The Start
My primary worry going into The Witcher season 4 was that there would be a sort of uncanny valley effect any time Hemsworth’s Geralt was on the screen. Recastings will often pull viewers out of the story, and full immersion is essential for fantasy TV shows. However, by the end of episode 1, I had completely accepted Hemsworth.
Hemsworth didn’t completely copy Cavill’s performance as Geralt, but he matched his predecessor just enough to allow everything to feel cohesive. Still, what really struck me in The Witcher season 4 is that Hemsworth’s version of Geralt looks and sounds quite similar to the Witcher video games’ depiction of the character. This may be why it was ultimately so easy to quickly view him as the Geralt of Rivia.
If this had been the case, then The Witcher might never have gone through the awkwardness of having to recast the role.
Overall, this demonstrates that Hemsworth could have pulled off Geralt’s character from the very beginning, had he been cast for season 1. If this had been the case, then The Witcher might never have gone through the awkwardness of having to recast the role. After all, it was Cavill’s decision to leave the series, and we have no reason to think Hemsworth would have done the same.
The Witcher Can Never Fully Recover From Its Geralt Recasting
Cavill’s choice to leave The Witcher after season 3 was an unusual (and shocking) one. Though it’s not unheard of for lead actors to walk away from a TV show, it’s more common for longer-running series. A five-season Netflix show would typically be a fair commitment for an actor. The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich stated that Cavill left to focus on other projects, and she reportedly wasn’t inclined to force him to stay.
A report from Redanian Intelligence previously claimed that Hemsworth had been a frontrunner for the role of Geralt but had lost out to Cavill. This has never been officially confirmed.
Unfortunately, such a recasting is something that The Witcher will never fully recover from. The big Cavill-to-Hemsworth shift is likely to be the first thing that people think of in association with this series for years to come. Had Hemsworth held the role from the start, his version of the character would have been fully embraced, and any major recastings would have been avoided. We could have focused on The Witcher‘s other shortcomings instead.
- Release Date
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December 20, 2019
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
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Anya Chalotra
Yennefer of Vengerberg
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
