All eyes were on Henry Cavill as his final season of “The Witcher” premiered Thursday on Netflix.
“There is certainly a poignancy to it, yes,” Joey Batey, his “Witcher” costar, told TheWrap in the lead-up to Season 3’s premiere. Anya Chalotra added that she is “definitely going to feel that loss.”
The new season is divided into two parts, with the second volume streaming later in July. Speaking with TheWrap, the cast recalled a lot of sadness connected to the scenes that were filmed for Volume 2, knowing they were the last of Cavill’s Geralt.
“The character of Geralt — I’m not going to give too much away — is very much in a very compromised situation. The emotional depth that Henry brought to that performance, particularly in those final few weeks of filming, now looking back on it, it’s incredibly touching,” Batey, who plays Jaskier the bard, said. “I had a little trouble watching it, actually.”
“So did I,” Freya Allan continued. “There’s a certain scene towards the end, and he says something related to Ciri. I was gone. I was just tears.”
In October 2022, Cavill announced that he would be leaving the Netflix fantasy series and that “The Hunger Games” star Liam Hemsworth would be taking his place in Season 4. It’s still not entirely clear why Cavill left the project, but it marks a major turning point for the Netflix original.
“I’m going to miss him a lot. Definitely going to feel that loss, five years of him being Geralt is huge,” Chalotra said. “The Witcher” was one of Chalotra’s first major projects, and she credits Cavill with supporting her through it with “his experience and wisdom and incredible talent.”
At present, the cast members said they have not yet met with showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich or the series’ executive producers about what the transition to Hemsworth as Geralt will look like. “Once Season 3 is out in the world, I’m sure that those creative conversations will begin,” Batey said. “But I think it’s safe to say that we’re all really excited to see what Liam’s going to bring.”
Based on the novels of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski, “The Witcher” first premiered on Netflix in 2019. Since then, it’s become a tentpole franchise for the streamer, spawning three seasons, a prequel animated movie and a live-action prequel with a second animated film and a family-friendly animated project expected in the future.
