Liam Hemsworth Speaks Out on Replacing Henry Cavill in The Witcher — Here’s What He Said

Liam Hemsworth finally breaks his silence on taking over Geralt of Rivia from Henry Cavill, as The Witcher charges back to Netflix next month.

Recasting your monster-slaying lead midstream is always going to rile people up. After three seasons of The Witcher, Henry Cavill bowed out and Liam Hemsworth stepped in — and yeah, the internet had feelings. Hemsworth says he basically went offline to keep his head clear, and the show’s boss explains why he was their first call once it was clear Geralt needed a new face.

The noise, and why Hemsworth ghosted the internet

Fan response to the Cavill-to-Hemsworth swap has been split enough that Hemsworth bailed on social media — and most of the internet — for almost a year. He told Entertainment Weekly that the chatter became a distraction from the job he was trying to do.

"There was quite a bit of noise and I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction... 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."

How he got the gig (and what the show wanted from him)

Showrunner Lauren Hissrich says Hemsworth was literally the first name they went to once it became clear Cavill was out. His name had been floating around their conversations for a long time, and she says he’s been serious about doing the homework. He knew he was inheriting an established version of Geralt, so he pushed for two things that can be hard to balance in a recast: keep some continuity for the audience, and also build out choices that make his Geralt feel like its own take.

Yes, Hemsworth spoke with Cavill

Hemsworth says he and Cavill had a solid chat about playing Geralt and what the job actually feels like. He was complimentary of Cavill’s run and says he’s glad to carry the sword from here. Inside baseball-wise, it’s notable that the outgoing and incoming leads compared notes — that does not always happen.

So why did Cavill leave?

The polite, public version: reports at the time chalked it up to creative differences. Hissrich adds that Cavill had other roles he wanted to prioritize and the team didn’t want to lock him into something he wasn’t fully into, framing it as a mutual decision. The timing was wild — just days before his Witcher exit was made public, Cavill announced he was back as Superman. That comeback fizzled out fast.

What’s next in the Continent

The Witcher season 4 hits Netflix on October 30. And in a bit of franchise necromancy, that scrapped spin-off The Rats may not be dead after all — there’s talk of reviving it as a movie.