Liam Hemsworth on replacing Henry Cavill in ‘The Witcher’: “It came out of nowhere”

Liam Hemsworth has spoken about replacing Henry Cavill in The Witcher for the first time – see what he had to say below.

The fourth season of The Witcher will be the first without Henry Cavill in the role of Geralt of Rivia. The former Superman actor left the show in 2023 with season three marking his final appearance as the beloved character and hinted towards creative differences as the reason for his departure. Along with the news of his departure, Cavill announced that Liam Hemsworth would be replacing him.

While Hemsworth briefly addressed taking over the role when his casting was announced, the Australian actor hasn’t been too forthcoming about the switch since. Now, he’s opened up about replacing Cavill in a new chat with Entertainment Weekly.

Explaining why he hasn’t spoken much about the role, Hemsworth shared: “There was quite a bit of noise and I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction. I dealt with that sort of thing in the past a lot and, you know, at the end of the day, I love making movies and I love telling stories and acting. I just don’t want any of that to affect my way of telling the story that I’m trying to tell. I jumped off social media and the internet most of last year.”

Recalling being offered the role to replace Cavill, Hemsworth said: “It came out of nowhere. I was as surprised as anyone.” While Hemsworth has long been a fan of The Witcher through its games – and called The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt “one of the best video games of all time” – he still had his doubts about the role and needed to dive deeper into the books and first three seasons of the show.

He also confirmed that though he’s “a massive fan of Henry’s, and I’m a fan of what he did in the show,” his approach to Geralt in season four will introduce more of the character’s humour and sex appeal compared to Cavill’s run.

Hemsworth also shed new light on what fans can expect from season four: “The beginning of season 4 is pretty close after the battle with Vilgeforz. He’s not in a good place at that point, physically. He’s severely injured. Mentally, he’s dealing with things that he’s not used to, which is self-doubt and this frustration. Now all of a sudden, you’re seeing the very human side to this person, but what you’re also seeing is the determination to fix it.”

In 2023, executive producer Tomek Baginski revealed that Geralt’s sudden change of face will be addressed in season four, stating that fans of the books will recognise the story arc.

The Witcher season four is set to premiere on October 30, while season five – which was filmed back-to-back – will bring the series to an end. Seasons four and five will adapt the remaining three books by Andrzej Sapkowski, Baptism of Fire, The Tower of the Swallow and Lady of the Lake, promising to offer an “epic and satisfying conclusion” to the hit fantasy drama.

Reviewing Cavill’s final episodes in season three, NME‘s Alex Flood wrote: “There is definitely something compelling about The Witcher, something that has kept us hooked through 21 hours of storytelling. We can’t quite put our finger on what, but if you pushed us, we’d probably say (sorry, Netflix) that it has something to do with Cavill. These final episodes zip by in a whirl of flashing swords and witty retorts when Geralt’s on screen, but get bogged down when he’s off it.”