The Writer’s Fail: Henry Cavill and ‘The Witcher’
Exploring the inner works of Henry Cavill leaving ’The Witcher’ series and how the result of this can be narrowed down to the toxic creative team
Henry Cavill leaves the burning wreckage that is “The Witcher.” His departure was mostly due to the writers and showrunner Lauren Hissrich.
November 23, 2022
“The Witcher” has seen better days. What began as a pretty mediocre start for an upcoming fantasy show adapted by a popular and beloved book franchise about a mutant monster hunter named Geralt of Rivia created by fantasy author Andrzej Sapkowski, has turned into yet another Hollywood dumpster fire. Especially when the only thing carrying it up was the actor playing the Witcher himself, Henry Cavill, announced on Oct. 29 that he would be leaving the show to pursue roles that are more of interest to him, most famously returning to his role as Superman, with Liam Hemsworth taking up the role of Geralt of Rivia.
As Cavill says on Instagram, ”My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4.”
Cavill wrote, “As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men.”
This news hit hard for many fans expressing their anger and disappointment. And they should absolutely be. The main reason for Henry Cavill can mostly be found and how poor the production quality is, especially with the writers themselves. Former writer Beau DeMayo gives an insight into the shows working on a Q&A on Instagram.
He states that, “I’ve been on shows – namely ‘Witcher’ – where some of the writers were not fans or actively disliked the books (even actively mocking the source material).”
This is just in poor taste overall and should absolutely not be allowed, as it is their job to make entertaining content for “Witcher” fans, not to push their own gripes and insecurities out into the show. It’s as if it’s run by children all scurrying arounding, blurting out the first thing that comes out their head and doing whatever they want to do. This is regardless of keeping consistency to the actual source material.
In contrast, Cavill is a big fan of “The Witcher” series, advocating for his reason of being very passionate about this particular project and wanting to stay faithful to the source material. Cavill wants Geralt to be less of a grumpy snowman but sound more intellectual, more philosophical and to have an emotional side as well, because that is what Gealt was like in the books. Constant interviews with Cavill tell us a lot more about this, with Cavill trying to walk a thin line between faithfulness to the source material and doing the writer’s vision.
One particular scene being influenced and carried by Cavill is the famous Roach death scene, where Cavill has to say goodbye to his faithful horse who is dying. Executive producer and showrunner Lauren Hissrich admits that her first response was to puncture the moment with a bit of “meta comedy.” This obviously didn’t bode well for Cavill, who wanted a more sentimental and heartfelt scene.
After much debate, Hissrich finally caved in and said, “‘You know what, you come up with something. I trust you, you know this material so well, you know the book so well, you don’t even have to pitch it to me.’ And he came back with a beautiful speech at the end of Sword of Destiny when Geralt is facing death. It’s such a pitch perfect moment.”
Many have responded to this news negativity. The fact that Henry Cavill leaves his dream role is so sad to hear. This show definitely will not be the same after his departure. Others respond to this with a more hopeful prospect.
A Liberty High School teacher of the social studies department, Matthew Barker, who has followed “The Witcher” series for quite some time, says, “Good for him for being an artist, for staying with his art.” Truly shining a light on Cavill’s intentions in the industry being purely to entertain people.
Many know the great acting talents of Henry Cavill, moreover knowing that Cavill’s talents aren’t being wasted. Furthermore, many have taken action in petitioning to keep Cavill as the Witcher and replace the writers instead. On a site called Change.org, currently 200,000 people have signed this petition, and it’s still growing to this day.
The fact that this passionate and leading figure behind “The Witcher” series is leaving is so devastating. The show most definitely will suffer. That is not to say Liam Hemsworth is a bad actor or anything, but it’s gonna be difficult to win over the fans with so much nostalgia clouding everyone’s minds.
Likewise, it is saddening to see Hollywood yet again self-destructing by hiring incompetent writers, creators and executives who actively hate the art they are supposed to be adapting and producing. It’s a widespread problem amongst the entertainment industry. Whether that be the big or the little screen in shows, writers are being brought into these fantasy shows who actually don’t care much for them and are only adding things to make it funny or what they think sounds right to them. Trying to push their messages without considering the overall impact. And the result is a convoluted, demeaning and what might as well be a steaming hot post vindaloo diarrhea of stories. I mean, just look at the “Rings of Power” and how that turned out. It is rated as the second most terrible show that Amazon has produced, and fans ridiculed it for being a cheap knockoff from the original. And it doesn’t seem to be letting off any time soon.
There’s a lesson to be learned from this, and Henry Cavill says it best, saying: ”It’s all just about believing, if you believe what you are doing is the right thing then you’ll keep on doing it. It’s also important to know that if you realize you are doing the wrong thing, that’s when you stop doing the wrong thing, you don’t just keep going because that leads down a dark path.”
