‘The Witcher’ Star Freya Allan “Cried” When Henry Cavill Left Netflix Series, Still Pictures Him As Geralt While Filming
While whispers suggest a handful of the the Netflix series’ production crew despised Henry Cavill for his devotion to source material accuracy, The Witcher star Freya Allan has nothing but love for her former co-star, whose absence continues to weigh on her person both in- and out-of-character to this day.
Allan, whose role in the latest season saw her largely separated from the main party following the Fall of Thanedd and her ill-attempted use of Benavent’s portal, spoke to her thoughts on Cavill during a recent interview with NME’s Ali Shutler, as given in anticipation of The Witcher‘s upcoming finale.
Asked as to how she felt in the lead-up to the series’ recent Season 4 premiere, especially in regards to its debut of The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth as the new Geralt, Allan admitted that she made it a point to avoid any possible engagement with initial reactions, telling her host, “It was a scary one for everyone. There were a lot of big, terrifying changes so I removed myself from it as much as I could.”
Confirming that Cavill’s final season was “really difficult for everyone”, the actor then recalled how she was blindsided by the actor’s departure, having only found out that he was leaving she show while in the middle of filming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
“I cried because I wanted to finish the show with the guy that played my adoptive father,” she told her host. “For the first time, I was seeing what life away from The Witcher could look like and then the lead moves on…”
And though she struggled for “a sold amount of time” with the question of whether or not she should follow his lead, Allan ultimately decided to stay on for however long the series had left, with the actress affirming, “Once I’d made that choice, I made the most of every moment.”
To this end, though she has nothing against Hemsworth and has even developed a friendship with him, Allan confessed that between her history with Cavill and the fact that they filmed very few scenes together due to Ciri and Geralt’s narratives diverging until the very end of the season, whenever she had to imagine the White Wolf’s face, she still saw his original actor whenever she closed her eyes.
“It was very weird,” she said, drawing her thoughts on the casting shake-up to a close. “He’s the Geralt I grew up with.”
However, though the discussion moved on from Cavill specifically, his name did come up in one other, particularly interesting instance.
Asked as to how she was feeling now that her time on The Witcher, whose fifth and final season has already been filmed and is currently in post-production, was at end, Allan recalled, “I cried a lot [on the last day], but not as much as I expected to,” before assuring Shutler that, above all, she was hopeful that she, like Cavill before, had done right by fans of Andrzej Sapkowski’s original material.
“I really want to give fans what they want,” the actress asserted. “I’d also seen Henry, who was so knowledgeable and loyal to the books, push for certain lines to be included. When he left, I was inspired to take on that role.”
At present, The Witcher‘s final season has yet to receive a confirmed release date, but is scheduled to release on Netflix sometime in 2026.
