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In The Witcher’s second season, audiences first catch up with Jaskier singing his latest composition at a tavern. The song, “Burn Butcher Burn”, is an absolute banger filled with anger and heartbreak, yet even those lyrics fail to grasp the disappointment some Witcher fans may feel over Henry Cavill departing the show.

See, while Netflix’s The Witcher is far from perfect, Cavill embodied something rare in modern media, he was unanimously held by fans of the franchise as the perfect Geralt of Rivia, he alone is enough of a reason to watch the series. To understand why that is the case, one just needs to look at a clip of Cavill gushing over The Witcher in interviews, where he routinely nerds out on his love for both CD Projekt Red’s Witcher games and Andrzej Sapkowski’s books — Cavill is genuinely part of the fandom.

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The Henry Cavill Effect

Henry Cavill meme and comments collage

To top it all off, Cavill is the ultimate geek. He’s read the fantasy novels, he’s an avid PC gamer, he’s Superman, he’s ridiculously fit, he’s a Warhammer fan, he’s a great actor, and on top of that, he has a great reputation and public image. People’s love for this actor is truly the stuff of memes, as it’s not rare to see straight men online all over the world jokingly (or not) show their genuine affection for him and what he represents, something that partly comes down to the passion he brings to so many roles.

There’s a famous anecdote from the Man of Steel's set where Cavill was asked to shave his chest for one of his shirtless scenes, only for the actor to promptly fire back at the request by directly referencing the Death of Superman comics where Clark Kent goes for a fully natural look. Though it might sound silly, the moment speaks volumes of Cavill’s commitment to beloved characters, and it’s that very reason why his Geralt of Rivia will be sorely missed or why so many people want him to play James Bond.

Jaskier and Henry Cavill's Geralt in The Witcher

During his three-season run on The Witcher, Cavill was known as one of the series’ on-set lore experts on source material, not only out of sheer professionalism and respect for his craft but also due to the fact that for him, becoming Geralt of Rivia was really a dream come true. Oftentimes stars are quoted saying similar things, and it may very well be the case that some become fans along the way, but for Cavill, his commitment to this part came from hundreds of hours playing The Witcher 3, perhaps some of the best credentials available in the eyes of fans.

To have that taken away feels like a gut punch because Geralt was indeed in safe hands, hence why online petitions to keep Cavill in The Witcher are trending. Liam Hemsworth deserves the benefit of the doubt, and still, the Hunger Games star is being put in an incredibly awkward and difficult situation as he can’t ever hope to match Cavill’s love for the franchise, the very love that may have caused him to step aside.

Why Cavill Really Left The Witcher

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Quite frankly, very few people will know with certainty why Cavill stepped down from The Witcher, although there are two main hypotheses: one, that coming back as Superman is a time-consuming gig with better compensation than what Netflix pays its Witchers; the other, that Cavill grew tired of the show’s writers unwillingness to stick to the source material he loved so much.

The latter theory is now backed by testimony from former The Witcher writer Beau DeMayo, who was quoted describing the show’s writers room as a “recipe for disaster and bad morale,” due to the lack of appreciation and outright mockery some people had for the source material. Towards season 2, Cavill constantly expressed his desire for Geralt to develop as a more nuanced character, rather than the grunting white wolf from the first season; whether as a father figure to Ciri, how he interacted with strangers, or even his more introspective side that's really showcased in the books.

Netflix The Witcher Henry cavill

That desire may have gone unfulfilled, because season 2 (entertaining nonetheless) featured some of the biggest changes to The Witcher’s lore, such as introducing The Wild Hunt, the odd antagonist that was the Deathless Mother, Eskel getting killed or Emperor Emhyr’s reveal. Netflix’s The Witcher, instead has become its own thing, and considering Cavill was willing to play Geralt for 7 full seasons at one point, it’s hard to imagine this didn't influence his resolve to step down.

The timing of the announcement and Hemsworth’s casting suggest this was a carefully planned decision, possibly made even before Cavill shot his Black Adam cameo, but none of that matters. At the end of the day, Cavill is irreplaceable, and even if The Witcher survives, -to paraphrase Sapkowski- he’ll always be the perfect Geralt of Rivia.

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