He is known to most moviegoers as the man who played Superman in 2013’s Man of Steel film, but now US actor Henry Cavill will be playing a completely different character in an upcoming Netflix series.
This character is none other than Geralt of Rivia, the grizzled, cynical witcher made famous by Polish game company CD Projekt’s video games. Of course, Geralt was also the protagonist of novelist Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy books released in the 90’s, on which Netflix’s upcoming TV show is based, rather than the games.
And when the show was announced last year, one question which surely many Witcher fans had in mind back then was who would play macho protagonist Geralt of Rivia?
That question has been answered now as Netflix recently announced Cavill had landed the series’ top role, as was recently reported on PC Gamer.
Upon hearing the news, Doug Cockle (the man who voiced Geralt in CD Projekt’s games) wished Cavill good luck, saying that the US actor “will do a great job”, also adding that he expects the upcoming show to be “magic”.
Cavill had already shown interest in portraying Geralt this August, stating he was a huge fan of the games and books these are based on. What we didn’t knew back then is that the US actor had already been chosen to play the grizzled witcher of video games and literature, as showrunner Lauren Hissrich recently confirmed in a tweet (see below).
He was my first meeting. I didn’t have writers or scripts yet – just a greenlight and a lot of passion. That was four months ago, and I’ve never forgotten the passion he brought. He IS Geralt. He always has been. I’m so thrilled to welcome HENRY CAVILL to the #Witcher family.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) September 4, 2018
So, will Cavill be able to deliver a great performance in this TV series and live up to fan expectations for Netflix’s upcoming show?
As others have pointed out, he does appear to be a little too clean-cut for the role (although a little make-up always works wonders on TV of course), while the show itself also runs the risk of being just another boring Game of Thrones clone, something that wouldn’t please me one bit. I was also rooting for the Witcher to be turned into a big-budget Hollywood movie instead – it definitely has the potential for that, being a sword and fantasy tale of the highest calibre – although hopefully the planned movie might still make it to theatres someday.
Either way, it would be a great thing for the millions of Witcher fans out there if this TV series does live up to the hype and ends up being as entertaining as the games were when it’s released sometime in the future.