While we’ve had over half a year to come to grips with the fact that Henry Cavill will no longer bring life to Geralt of Rivia after the third season of The Witcher, those healed-over wounds may be torn open once more when we’re done binging our way through the White Wolf’s latest adventure over the next two months. Fans of Cavill’s Geralt aren’t the only ones feeling melancholy about the matter – his co-stars are also lamenting his departure.
Joey Batey, the man who behind the bard who encouraged the entire world to “toss a coin to your Witcher” recently reflected on his time working with Cavill. The Jaskier actor gushed to Entertainment Tonight about what an honor it was to play opposite the retired Superman, and expressed how dearly he’s going to miss his co-star:
“So much commitment, so much grit to the role and working day in and day out with him, and seeing how much he puts into this character, it’s really quite inspirational. I’m gonna miss him. I’m gonna miss him a lot.”
Batey’s character will be spreading the tale of a slightly different silver-haired monster hunter through song, with Liam Hemsworth taking on the unenviable task of stepping into Geralt’s boots when the show’s fourth season rolls around. If we’re to believe the showrunners, apparently the transition from one actor to the next will be quite smooth, and lore-accurate.
At the risk of sounding like an uninformed contrarian who hasn’t read the books and only played the video games, I’m not sure how any Doctor Who-esque body-morphing shenanigans fit into the broader scope of Andrzej Sapkowski’s universe, but we’ll see. Even one of the show’s stars is supremely curious about how the change will play out onscreen.
In any case – we’ll enjoy the good and Cavill-filled times while they last, and we’re thankfully mere hours away from The Witcher season 3, part 1 landing on Netflix. We’re also praying for Hemsworth, who will likely have a very rough-looking social media feed for the rest of the summer.