Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ Boss Claims Henry Cavill Left “For Other Roles”, Exit Was A “Symbiotic Decision”
Despite word on the street suggesting that the entire situation unraveled over a clash in creative differences, The Witcher showrunner Lauren Hissrich now claims that not only was Henry Cavill’s exit from the Netflix series prompted by his interest in “other roles”, but it was a mutually “symbiotic decision” that benefitted both parties.
Hissrich, who has overseen every season of the Netflix adaptation including its disastrous The Witcher: Blood Origins prequel series, spoke to Cavill’s departure during a recent interview given to Entertainment Weekly in promotion of Liam Hemsworth’s upcoming, fourth season debut as the new Geralt of Rivera.
Pressed as to her recollection of the unfortunate casting shake-up, Hissrich told the outlet that the reason for his leaving was, simply put, “He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to.”
“And for us, you don’t want to hold someone and force them to be doing something that they don’t want to do. I think that’s why it felt like a really symbiotic decision.”
While Hissrich did not name the specific roles Cavill allegedly left over, given the timing of his exit, it’s likely that the showrunner is referring to his short-lived return as Superman, which despite being heralded as the beginning of a revived ‘Cavill Supes’ era ultimately amounted to a brief cameo at the end of Black Adam.
To this end, Hissrich then affirmed, “We never really had serious conversations about the show not continuing.”
“The show is bigger than one actor. It’s bigger than me. There’s a book series, there’s a video game. We are the third entry into this. So The Witcher lives whether or not we go.”
As previously reported, after three seasons of watching Netflix butcher author Andrzej Sapkowski original work, Cavill announced his exit from The Witcher on October 29th, 2022, breaking the news via post made to his personal Instagram account:
Some news to share from The Continent…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.
In my stead, the fantastic Mr Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf. 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.
Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”
Though Cavill has yet to ever detail the exact reasons for his leaving, when asked by The Hollywood Reporter in November 2021 ahead of the series’ second season premiere if he planned on staying on as Geralt for upwards of “seven seasons”, the Snyderverse Superman declared, “Absolutely – As long as we can keep telling great stories which honor [The Witcher creator Andrzej] Sapkowski’s work.”
From there, December 2022 saw the celebrity gossip podcast Deux U relayed a statement, as purportedly sent in by an unspecified member of The Witcher team, which claimed that Cavil was, for all intents and purposes, the living embodiment of the strawman conception of a ‘toxic dude bro’:
“At the beginning of the show, Henry was good to work with. A lot of unusual demands that made people feel like he wasn’t really a team player, but that’s not unusual for a big star. Though in TV, it truly usually doesn’t happen until the second season.
“But in season 2 and 3, something shifted, and he became really impossible for women to work with, which is always a big problem, but even worse here, because the showrunner is a woman.
“He would try to overrule her and try to get changes made last minute across the board without her knowledge – Which if you know anything about showrunning, is completely f—ed. The showrunner has to sign off on every miniscule detail down to the buttons on a costume.
“Female writers and directors were suddenly completely ignored on set, unable to do their jobs. Every department head was complaining. He started making comments. It wasn’t a sexual thing: he wasn’t grabbing anyone, or being lewd, but it was disrespectful and toxic all the same.
“He’s deeply addicted to video games, to the point where it was like working with any other addict. He was distracted, he was late, he was obsessive [a reference to Cavill’s self-admitted love for CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt]. And a lot of people think that the misogyny came from gamer world. Video game bro language is not how you talk to coworkers. And he wouldn’t stop. Someone on the show compared it to watching someone get brainwashed by QAnon. His whole personality shifted.
“Eventually his disrespect escalated. He would rewrite scenes without even alerting the other actors in the scenes until it was time to shoot. He decided that he didn’t want any romantic scenes at all. No kissing, no shirtless scenes, etc. He wanted complete control of storylines, but really had no idea of the limitations of TV, structure, budget, etc.
“He formed a weird alliance with one writer who was also a gamer, who eventually got fired after multiple HR complaints were made. And after that writer left, Henry did anything he could to hold up production and cause problems.
Eventually, top brass at Netflix was tired of him costing them money with delays in HR investigations and the showrunner was asked to construct a potential exit for him. Netflix reached out to him personally, and he was given one final warning, and violated that warning with an email he sent to the entire writing staff, right after that meeting. That was it.”
Barring any unforeseen delays, The Witcher‘s fourth season – along with Hemsworth’s take on the White Wolf – is currently set to hit Netflix on October 30th.
