Chin up, Henry Cavill fans, we’re here to gaze at some other roles to lift our spirits following the not-so-super news that he’ll no longer be Geralt of Rivia.
The 39-year-old British actor, whose full name is the very-British Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill, is on our screens currently reprising his role as Sherlock Holmes, with more of him as Superman on the horizon. What other roles has he elevated, though?
Surprisingly, Cavill still hasn’t been the leading man in a ton of films you might think someone of his stature would have been, but given his relatively young age still and promise of more to come, that is sure to change in the next decade.
So while Cavill goes up, up, and away from The Witcher, let’s look at his best movies and TV shows from 10 to one.
10. Immortals (2011)
There are better movies that Cavill was cast in, and even better roles coming from him, but most of them are pretty small roles or in the case of a bigger role, pretty awful movies (see: Stardust and I Capture the Castle for the former, Sand Castle and The Cold Light of Day for the latter). So, that’s how we end up with Immortals at 10 on our list. There’s just not anyone else really here that matches Cavill on the “let’s really relish playing Greek gods” level, and for sure, this fueled Cavill’s rise to become Superman, so it gets the slot here. It somehow made more than $200 million at the box office worldwide, and even if it’s a bit terrible, the visuals and Cavill are something to behold.
9. Enola Holmes 2 (2022)
A bit to our surprise, this has glowingly high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes right now. Like, 93% on the Tomatometer and a 79% audience score, both besting the original (91% and 71%, respectively). That could be due to the film being a bit more prominent and better known than the original, but the first one still sported a bit more robust storytelling for us, while the sequel talks out explanations that were just given five minutes earlier a bit too often (not necessarily his fault, but we don’t need Cavill repeating his lines within minutes of each other, trying a bit too hard to embody Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock).
8. Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Somehow, Superman returned. OK, so it’s not quite worth the Palpatine joke, because we get some explanation how a dead Superman comes back to help save the day, but it leaves the audience craving more of the real heart of the story. Sure, Batman can always carry the day for DC, but it’s Superman who has been the real knight in shining armor instead of the brooding Dark Knight that lifted up kids and adults alike to believe in and even cherish superheroes. Is that the kid in me still fondly remembering Christopher Reeves as Superman? A bit. But Cavill himself wanted the character and his arc to be more fleshed out and with more depth than the other stabs at Superman such as Lois & Clark or Smallville. I guess it’s good that Snyder got to get back in there and make this a bit better, even if it’s a bit too long. Coming back to our intro, when do we get/stop asking for Rian Johnson’s The Rise of Skywalker?
7. The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
For fans of the original, of the book, a remake in the days of everything getting overmade and overcooked was enough to keep audiences away. Then, you end up seeing the movie on TNT, or back-in-the-day Netflix delivery, and wowza, it’s superb. It follows the original storyline, with Cavill even almost outshining the lead actors in their interactions at times. The movie itself warrants higher ranking, but here, he doesn’t get a huge role as this was just his second film. It was the beacon in his early work that led to bigger roles.
6. The Tudors (2007-2010)
The real breakout role for Cavill, and the one that set the stage for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. For those who only caught onto him as Superman and his bigger roles in Mission: Impossible — Fallout and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. might not have realized Cavill is actually British.
His very British character in The Tudors, Charles Brandon, gets to evolve as the seasons go on, and though it’s probable it’s something that slipped past plenty of readers and viewers, for those who are into those British period pieces, The Tudors is worth returning to, especially for the latter seasons featuring more of Cavill.
5. Man of Steel (2013)
Yeah, we acknowledge the movie itself is bereft of the amount of substance we hoped for from a new Superman. At the time, though, recall that Cavill was still somewhat unknown to larger audiences, and that we were all a bit hesitant to accept a new Superman because, well, nobody had been able to aptly pull it off since Christopher Reeves (we see you, and still love you, Dean Cain).
Yet, there he was, Cavill as Superman. Not playing the man from Crypton, but actually embodying him, and having us believe it was really him. That’s why Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the first go at Justice League were such a letdown. Zack Snyder’s take was cool, but we needed four hours to get enough, and that’s too much.
Like, you have us in the palm of your hands, DC, and you go and waste it for a decade before finally announcing that Cavill will come back to for realsies get a shot to be Superman in a beefier role — albeit all while breaking our hearts that he is leaving The Witcher, too.
4. Enola Holmes (2020)
There’s a reason the second Enola Holmes movie centered more around Cavill’s Sherlock instead of having both brothers featured nearly equally. Perhaps the set up was always to cast him into a bigger role as the franchise evolved, yet still, his showing the first film caught us a bit off-guard especially coming off The Witcher and his Superman roles. Cavill strikes the right level of arrogance, bombastic behavior, egotistical mannerisms and speech, all while still be charming enough that we understand the magnetism of those around him who hang on his words and actions. Though the second movie might be garnering a bit more accolades and praise, this role stands out a bit more perhaps because it flowed naturally from his performance in The Tudors, and it was long overdue for Cavill to go full Brit again.
3. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Let’s be clear, this is not a rundown of the top rated Cavill performances on Rotten Tomatoes, or IMDB, or that one listicle written on that one website, but it’s about the on-screen presence, and what the role does for the film and for his stature. After this Guy Ritchie flick, it became clear that Cavill could be so much more than what we got in Man of Steel. It actually made his Superman performance that much worse — er, well, the screenplay/direction of the film, we should say — because Superman is so full of layers that were left unmined in his first superhero movie. This plays out almost like a superhero movie, and even with what we know about Armie Hammer now, their tête-à-tête at a table is still a wonder to watch and the film as a whole is pretty solid, despite his playboy antics.
2. Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)
It wasn’t that I was tired of Tom Cruise and Mission: Impossible flicks, it was that I was indifferent, could not care any less about him or the franchise anymore. And then, with not much else being offered on an overnight international flight, this movie and Cavill’s jaunty chin jutted its way onto my screen, and now, I need for Cavill to have survived that (spoilers) fight on the side of a mountain after a helicopter crash so he can return for another M:I adventure.
Even as it starts to become clear that Cavill might be the nefarious one in the film, he plays the role of mustachioed villain so damn well. And the Cavill-Cruise chemistry is legit, keeping the movie fresh despite it wanting so badly to fall into tired tropes and repeats from the other films in the series. It’s even worth a second watch, just to catch the subtleties of Cavill’s character once you know what you know about the, ahem, fallout.
1. The Witcher (2019-2022)
Anything said about Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher these days must be met with a start of sorrow, as we all know he is departing the role after the upcoming third season. It seems he was built, physically and through his character work over years and years, to play Geralt. That’s what makes it all the more shameful that he’ll be leaving the role he invested so much time and energy into, quite literally as a devoted fan of the books, the games, and the character, because, well, nobody’s quite precisely sure why he is leaving the role with total clarity.
It could be that he was so dedicated to the role that he couldn’t take the indifference from the showrunners, directors, writers, and more from the Netflix crew who were reducing Geralt’s intelligence and sensitivity to mere grunts and longing stares.
So let’s see, Cavill loves the character, fans love Cavill as the character, and the show, after starting off a little confusing and clunky to those not versed with The Witcher lore, caught on enough to become a worldwide sensation — including here in Poland, where I reside and where the original stories from Andrzej Sapkowski came to life. That’s saying something, and the fact we aren’t even taking about how great Cavill embodied the character and created such great rapport and on-screen chemistry with his costars says even more about how this will most likely be remembered as a blunder from Netflix.
