It’s been a little rough for The Witcher lately. The (former) leading man Henry Cavill announced he was exiting the series last fall, and fans were distraught and a little confused, especially after rumors swirled that Cavill left to be Superman (this turned out to be false). At least we get some more Hemsworth content out of it, though.
Andrzej Sapkowski, author of the book series, recently spoke at Vienna Comic Con where he revealed that Netflix doesn’t really ask for his input while crafting the series. Sapkowski visited the set, saying, “Oh well, the set was tremendous, tremendous, awesome,” Sapkowski gushed, before adding that he doesn’t get to contribute much to the live-action adaptation. “But no, maybe I gave them some ideas, but they never listen to me. They never listen to me. But it’s normal, it’s normal. ‘Who’s this? It’s the writer, it’s nobody.’” Considering his attitude, it is not surprising that Cavill stepped down, as it seems like Netflix wanted all of the creative control.
Cavill famously had similar views about the show straying far from the source material. In a 2021 article, Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich told The Hollywood Reporter that Cavill was always trying to stick to the book. “A lot of the notes he was sending to me were about Geralt’s dialogue — could he, first of all, say more,” Hissrich said. “Everybody came out of season one laughing and loving Geralt’s fuming. But Henry was saying that when you read the books you spend a lot of time in Geralt’s head. So how can we put that on the page?” Unfortunately, they never quite figured it out, so Cavill went on to bigger and better things.
It seems like these frustrations, paired with the hope of returning to Superman, was enough for Cavill to exit the series after season three, when Liam Hemsworth will step in those snazzy hunting boots for season four. He is familiar with those.