The Witcher Season 4’s Silent Launch Might Bite Harder Than Losing Henry Cavill
After three seasons of momentum, The Witcher is wobbling—Henry Cavill’s departure has rattled the fandom, and a limp marketing push is stoking fears the fantasy hit is losing its magic as fan reactions sour.
So, The Witcher Season 4 just dropped on Netflix... and a surprising number of people had no idea. Between the lead swap (Liam Hemsworth stepping in for Henry Cavill) and a marketing push that seems to have taken a long nap, the show’s return landed with a thud loud enough to wake up Reddit.
Wait, it’s out already?
Season 4 is live. Some fans were ready to see Hemsworth swing the silver sword. A lot of others didn’t even know there was a new season until they stumbled into a Reddit discussion thread and collectively did a spit-take.
"Wait. It’s already out?"
One person said they were spending the evening with The Witcher 3 instead of watching the show. Another admitted they used to count down the days to new episodes, but this time it arrived without them noticing. Someone else showed up just to gauge early reactions and guessed the chemistry wouldn’t feel the same with Yennefer. And of course, a fourth chimed in with the classic: "Oh sh**, is it out?"
Point is, if a hefty slice of the fanbase is discovering a new season by accident, something got lost in the promotional pipeline.
About that promo problem
On Netflix’s own Instagram lately, the big spotlight has been on two things that aren’t The Witcher: 'Stranger Things' Season 5 and Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming horror film 'Frankenstein' with Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Jacob Elordi. Recent pushes have also gone to 'Monsters: The Ed Gein Story', 'House of Dynamite', and 'Nobody Wants This'. All fine. But if you’re rolling out a new Geralt and a new season, maybe lead with that?
Why Henry Cavill left (and why Liam Hemsworth is Geralt now)
Cavill announced he was leaving back in 2022, which rattled both the industry and the die-hards. Fans immediately started theorizing about creative differences and whether the show was drifting from the books. There was even chatter that he’d have stuck around for up to seven seasons if the series stayed closer to the source material. Officially, though, the team says it was his call.
"Cavill personally wanted to end his time as Geralt. He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to. And for us, you don’t want to hold someone and force them to be doing something that they don’t want to do. I think that’s why it felt like a really symbiotic decision."
That explanation comes from executive producer Lauren Hissrich, who laid it out in an interview. After bowing out, Cavill popped up in a bunch of projects: the spy caper 'Argylle' (with Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, and Dua Lipa), Guy Ritchie’s 'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare', and a cameo in 'Deadpool & Wolverine'.
The Witcher release timeline
- Season 1: December 20, 2019
- Season 2: December 17, 2021
- Season 3 Part 1: June 29, 2023
- Season 3 Part 2: July 27, 2023
- Season 4: October 30, 2025
Where this leaves Season 4
Hemsworth has the unenviable job of following Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. Some fans are excited to see what he does with it; others are still side-eyeing the whole thing and debating the vibes with Yennefer. The bigger problem today, though, is that a new season of one of Netflix’s signature fantasy shows arrived and a lot of people didn’t hear it land. That’s not on the actors.
The Witcher Season 4 is streaming now on Netflix. If you watched it already, tell me: how does Hemsworth’s Geralt play for you, and does the show still have its spark?