The Witcher: Anya Chalotra addresses Henry Cavill’s departure

The Witcher season 3 will be split into two batches of episodes, with the first batch reaching the Netflix streaming service on June 29th and the rest being released on July 27th… and when both volumes have played out, we will have seen the end of Henry Cavill’s time as Geralt of Rivia. It was already announced last October that Liam Hemsworth will be taking over the role of Geralt as of season 4. While we get ready to watch the first batch of episodes of The Witcher season 3, Cavill’s co-star Anya Chalotra has addressed his departure – and the imminent arrival of Hemsworth.

During an interview with Variety, Chalotra asked what it was like to find out that Cavill is leaving the show. She answered, “We didn’t know until after we’d filmed season 3. And it’s always emotional filming at the end of any season — you know, that last scene you do with the people that you’ve worked with for eight months. It’s always like, ‘Aw,’ but you live in that moment. And we didn’t know till post filming. I think we will all feel that loss. He’s been with us since day one. We’ve been through a lot together. It’s been five years of not only this world that we have in The Witcher, but COVID — all these things that we’ve gone through together, and it’s a strong bond. But with anything we do it comes to an end. Henry is moving on from this, and that’s really exciting. We’ve had a wonderful five years with him, and I’m excited for new energy to come in as well. Liam will be brilliant, I’m sure. I haven’t spoken to him yet — well, I have spoken to him but I haven’t met him. So yeah, I’m excited for that.“

Chalotra confirmed that she hasn’t had any sort of chemistry read with Hemsworth and wasn’t involved in his casting at all. So far she has only corresponded with him through email. Asked if it will be challenging to act opposite a different Geralt, she said, “I wonder how they’re going to do it. I haven’t read anything, so I really do wonder how they’re going to bring this character into the audience’s life who have been with us for five years. I’m excited; it’s all unknown. … But I’m very excited to see what his Geralt is. And only then will we realize what dynamics we have as a group.“

Inspired by a series of novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family — the story of the intertwined destinies of three individuals in the vast world of The Continent, where humans, elves, witchers, gnomes, and monsters battle to survive and thrive, and where good and evil is not easily identified.

The Witcher season 3 is specifically based on the book Time of Contempt. This season has the following synopsis: As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri of Cintra into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where she hopes to discover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battlefield of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line — or risk losing each other forever.

Cavill and Chalotra (who plays Yennefer of Vengerberg) are joined in the cast by Freya Allan as Princess Cirilla of Cintra and Joey Batey as the bard Jaskier. Other returning actors from previous seasons include MyAnna Buring, Tom Canton, Jeremy Crawford, Eamon Farren, Mahesh Jadu, Terence Maynard, Lars Mikkelsen, Mimî M Khayisa, Royce Pierreson, Wilson Mbomio, Anna Shaffer, Therica Wilson-Read, Cassie Clare, Mecia Simson, Graham McTavish, Bart Edwards, Simon Callow, Liz Carr, Ed Birch, and Kaine Zajaz. Among the new additions to the cast are Robbie Amell (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City), Meng’er Zhang(Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Hugh Skinner (Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!), and Christelle Elwin (Bloods).

Are you sad to know that The Witcher season 3 will be the last we’ll see of Henry Cavill as Geralt? Are you interested to see Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer interact with Liam Hemsworth’s Geralt? Share your thoughts on this recasting situation by leaving a comment below.