The Witcher Fans Didn’t See This Coming: Liam Hemsworth Wins Over Viewers as Geralt After Henry Cavill
Under mounting scrutiny, a rare mea culpa: "Apologies are in order"—and the scramble to contain the fallout begins.
So, The Witcher season 4 got dinged pretty hard by critics as a new low for the show. But out in the wild, the reaction to Liam Hemsworth stepping in as Geralt is not the disaster many expected. In fact, some fans are doing something I did not have on my 2024 bingo card: apologizing to the guy.
The handoff nobody could win
Replacing Henry Cavill was always going to be a thankless gig, and Hemsworth walked straight into the line of fire the second his casting was announced. After watching episode 1 of season 4, one fan on Reddit basically said the quiet part out loud and owned their about-face:
"I just finished watching E1 of S4 and I have to say.. I don't hate it at all and I kind of like Liam as Geralt. I feel like apologies are in order."
"Unfortunately, that may mean that Liam gets some unnecessary flak thrown his way, but I never doubted that he would do a great job. The guy was chucked between a rock and a hard place, a true no-win scenario. He's a great actor and I wish him all the best, just wish this entire situation never happened."
That sentiment has company. Another fan argued he would have been great if he had been cast from day one, adding that he looks closer to how they pictured Geralt from the novels. And that comparison keeps popping up: for a chunk of book readers, Hemsworth’s vibe and physicality line up more with Andrzej Sapkowski’s Geralt than Cavill’s take ever did.
So… where does that leave season 4?
Critics may not be thrilled with the season as a whole, but the 'Is Hemsworth a disaster?' panic reads premature at best. At minimum, the early fan chatter suggests he’s clearing the lowest bar — credible Geralt — and for some, he’s actually nailing the book energy.
The timeline from here
Worth remembering: his run will be short. The Witcher is ending with season 5, and filming on that final batch has already wrapped. If the show sticks the landing, Hemsworth could walk away with a little unexpected hero status — the guy who inherited an impossible job and made it work just in time to say goodbye.