THE WITCHER Showrunner Shares Why They Didn't End The Show When Henry Cavill Left
When it was shockingly announced that Henry Cavill would be leaving The Witcher series after Season 3 and that he was being replaced with Liam Hemsworth for Season 4, fans have wondered why they just didn’t end the show. It seems like without Cavill playing Geralt of Rivia, what’s the point? He’s one of the main reasons why fans watch the show and I imagine that viewership is going to drop dramatically with Season 4.
During a recent interview with showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, she explains why they decided to continue the series without Cavill, saying:
"It was time for him in his life to move on. I think we’ve all been mourning this in our own way. I mean, we had the choice to have Geralt exit and to end the show. [But] that’s not something that we were willing to do. There’s just too many stories left to tell. If we replaced Geralt with another Witcher, we would be going fully away from the books, and I don’t think that’s what anyone wanted either."
With all these stories they want to tell, I guess they are really hoping that fans will continue to flock to the show without Cavill. It will be interesting to see if they will actually get to continue the series beyond Season 4. She went on to talk about Liam Hemsworth, saying:
"We’re all excited about Liam coming in. He’s got enormous shoes to fill, but also has a lot of energy and a lot of excitement for it. It’s obviously a brand-new chapter for us. And there’s a lot of feelings involved. But at the end of the day, we love what we’re doing. So we’re gonna keep going."
Now, Cavill is back in the upcoming third season, which begins with the White Wolf reluctantly uniting with Yennefer as they try to keep Ciri safe. As you might imagine, this isn’t going to be easy for them as everyone in the Continent is after Ciri. Hissrich went on to say:
"The core of The Witcher is all about family. And this is the point at which our family finally gets a chance to be together for the first time and actually start imagining a future together. And so I was really excited to finally deliver that promise to the audience… to get to that place where there could be some happiness. But it’s The Witcher… so of course that doesn’t last!"
In The Witcher Season 3, “as monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri of Cintra into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where she hopes to discover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line — or risk losing each other forever.”
Hissrich also previously said that Season 3 feels like "the most heroic sendoff" for the actor.
The five-episode Volume 1 of Season 3 will be released globally on June 29th, with Volume 2, including the season’s final three episodes are set to drop on July 27th.