When Henry Cavill exited from The Witcher, fans across the globe mourned the loss of his Geralt of Rivia. The Butcher of Blaviken was a formidable fighter, with Cavill really flexing his power and combat skills in the role. Now, his already much-maligned replacement, Liam Hemsworth, has to find a way to keep up with him.
One individual who worked with Cavill on the series was Netflix’s One Piece director Mark Jobst, who directed the series’ penultimate and final episode of the first season, Before a Fall and Much More. In a recent interview with We Got This Covered, the director praised Cavill’s fighting ability and how it allowed them to tell the story through the action sequences.
“When you get into something like The Witcher where I had a lot of big fight sequences in the pilot on the sword fight, I wanted to do a very big, long continuous action sequence in that, in order to tell the story that the Witcher is a really good fighter, and be bloody careful if you take him on because he can really do this. And we could do that because Henry Cavill is a really bloody good fighter.”
Being set in a medieval fantasy world, there is of course a lot of sword fighting, and Cavill’s deftness with a sword certainly came in handy, “When he wields that sword, man, you better know what you’re doing, because it’s heavy, and he won’t stop. And that was really exciting.”
Many fans felt that Cavill was perfect for the role, not only because he physically fits the role of a super-powered fighter, a role he has played more than once, but also because of his love for the source material and world-building created by Andrzej Sapkowski. Despite Cavill being the face of the series he and The Witcher parted ways. With the story left unfinished, Netflix had no alternative but to replace him, bringing on board the younger brother of Thor, Liam Hemsworth.
When the news was released that Hemsworth would be taking over the role, the internet immediately and collectively released its rage. You have to feel a little sorry for Hemsworth, who has yet to even prove whether or not he can take on the challenge, but for many, there is no replacing Cavill.
Though Hemsworth has been in plenty of action films himself, earning his breakout performance in The Hunger Games opposite Jennifer Lawrence as well as a number of other action films, he will really have his work cut out for him as he steps into the very large shoes left to him by Cavill.
With the ongoing strikes, there is no date yet set for the fourth season of The Witcher.
