The news of Henry Cavill’s departure from The Witcher devastated the fandom, but imagine what it must be like for his co-stars to one day return to the set and find, literally, another person in his shoes.
Cavill joined the Netflix adaptation early on due to his love for Andrzej Sapkowski’s fictional world. Back then, he was a huge fan of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which had just come out to unanimous critical acclaim. CD Projekt’s game compelled him to read the books, and from then on, he became an advocate of the franchise in his own medium.
And that, more than anything else, baffles us when we think about his decision to leave the show with only three seasons behind his Geralt of Rivia. Netflix is bringing on Liam Hemsworth to replace Cavill, but other than that, the company has yet to divulge exactly why the team lost its lead actor. Henry’s co-stars had also kept their feelings pretty close to the chest, but with season three nigh on the horizon, Anya Chalotra (Yennefer of Vengerberg) has decided to finally address the loss of her on-screen partner.
“I was really sad,” Chalotra tells SFX in its new issue. “I may have shed a tear. It’s a journey we have been on together for a long time, all of us.”
As for what Cavill meant to Chalotra, in particular, and not just her character Yennefer, she added:
“Especially in my career, The Witcher has been the biggest thing I have done. It’s the project that started me off. Henry was a huge part of that. He’s a crucial member of the show and I will miss him dearly.”
There’s no Witcher without Geralt. There’s no Geralt without Yennefer. The story’s most ardent fans, at least those who still wish to see the Netflix series when Cavill has left it, can only hope that Chalotra and Liam Hemsworth’s chemistry will be as good as it was with his predecessor.
