Why Did Henry Cavill Really Leave ‘The Witcher'? Was It Disagreements Over Source Material? Or His Superman Cameo?

Henry Cavill is an unabashed nerd when it comes to the film and TV projects he's associated with. He's put the research he put into Superman's comic book character arc on display in interviews. He's a big fan of Warhammer and has expressed wanting to adapt the British miniature war game into a movie.

The same goes for The Witcher, and he successfully starred as Geralt of Rivia in the popular Netflix series. So why did Liam Hemsworth replace him in the show?

Summer 2023 was the last time viewers saw Cavill don the gray-haired wig and sword for the monsters-and-magic themed series's third season.

Around the time Cavill's departure was announced, news broke out that Liam Hemsworth would be his replacement.

And it was around this time that speculation as to why Cavill wouldn't be returning started circulating the internet. Some stated that it was largely attributed to Cavill's intense passion for the franchise and its original source material.

Fans believed that the Mission Impossible actor's devotion to Andrzej Sapkowski's work created friction with production. Echoes of this belief can be found in this Reddit r/witcher sub, when a user on the application asked other Witcher viewers why Cavill left the show.

Initially, the original poster of the Reddit entry mentioned that they thought Cavill wasn't the right choice for the show. However, upon watching the series, they grew accustomed to him, and were upset that Liam Hemsworth was taking on the character.

One person who replied to the Redditor's online entry stated that Cavill's decision to leave the show was influenced by his dissatisfaction with the direction of the series. As Radio Times also reported, the aforementioned Reddit user said that Cavill was initially supposed to be in seven seasons of The Witcher.

"Cavill agreed to acting for all seven (I think) seasons on one condition," they penned. However, because Netflix's production team "totally chang[ed] how some characters behave" and made "up entire contradicting storylines" the source material was "undermined and destroyed many of the central themes and ideas," they stated.

Consequently, Cavill left. However, Radio Times pointed to Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich's commentary on the situation. She stated that Cavill was committed to other roles and didn't want him to feel as if he needed to finish the series he helped start.

Around the same time, Cavill had shown up in the post-credits scene of The Rock's Black Adam movie, which didn't exactly become the box office money maker Warner Bros. had probably hoped it would be.

Cavill has yet to return as Superman again, and James Gunn's reimagining of the flick ended up faring better, but there are still reports that it also didn't move the needle enough to be a sizable profit.

As for Hemsworth's involvement, Forbes reported that Liam was initially was reluctant to take on the role. This is despite the fact that the Hunger Games star was a fan of the video game and Geralt as a character. That's because he was "hesitant, unsure ... to be asked to come in midway through a series like this and continue one as the lead character."

Ultimately, because he was a fan of the video game and Geralt, he decided to sign on the dotted line. The Witcher's original seven-season plan was cut down to five, with Hemsworth filling in for the last two.

Hemsworth received varied responses to his portrayal as Geralt, which were delineated in this separate Forbes piece.

While critics' opinions are just their own, their concerns do seem to be akin to what fans in the above-referenced Reddit post had.

Some mentioned that the Season 4 shortcomings have nothing to do with Hemsworth's work as Geralt, but rather clunky dialogue and bizarre storyline shifts. There were others who thought that seeing Hemsworth fill in for Cavill was ultimately jarring and that his interpretation of the character didn't do enough to elevate the show's script.

And then there were those who thought he did a great job, like Collider, which wrote, "It's a challenge that [Hemsworth] successfully meets, his performance evolving into something that feels entirely apropos for the version of the character he's portraying."