Why Did Henry Cavill Quit ‘The Witcher’? Maybe Because He’s Barely In It Anymore

While watching screeners for the new season of Netflix‘s The Witcher, I found myself asking a lot of questions. Like, would the show ever explain how nice old Duny became Emperor Emhyr var Emreis (Bart Edwards)? Was there a reason why Robbie Amell just shows up as Gallatin only to be, uh, ignobly cut out of the show as Gallatin? And, most importantly, where in heaven’s name was Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill)??

Look, I know Geralt is in The Witcher Season 3 Volume 1. The new season opens with him mowing down a bunch of random guys with bloody abandon. He stares at Yennefer (Anya Cholatra) with longing, pursues Ciri’s (Freya Allan) enemies with a dogged determination, and banters at times with Jaskier (Joey Batey). The show might be called The Witcher, but Geralt of Rivia is hardly ever the main focus. The Witcher is now an ensemble drama that affords as much time and space to the scheming of Redanian spies, the internal politics of Aretuza, the ambitions of Nilfgaard, the plight of the elves, the adventures of Fringilla (Mimî M. Khayisa), the love life of Jaskier, the studies of Istredd (Royce Pierreson), and detours to bathhouses as it does to its eponymous character.

“The Witcher” is barely in The Witcher Season 3, if you ask me. And after realizing this, I totally get why Henry Cavill left The Witcher last fall.

Henry Cavill stunned Witcher fans last October when he revealed that he would not be returning as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher Season 4. Instead, Liam Hemsworth — that guy Miley Cyrus wrote “Flowers” about — would be stepping into the role. Needless to say, fans began speculating why Cavill, who was an avowed fan of the games and books, would quit what was once his dream job. Theories ranged from Cavill’s creative differences with showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich to the rumor that Warner Bros. wanted him back as Superman onscreen. I personally now believe Cavill read the scripts for The Witcher Season 3, saw he was barely in them, and thought, “Why am I bulking up in the gym and wearing a white wig for this disrespectful nonsense?”

Being Geralt of Rivia seems to be as much a calling for an actor as it must be a chore. One the plus side, you don’t have a lot of lines to learn. On the other, you have painful amounts of stunt choreography, black out contact lenses, and jokes about schtupping on top of unicorns to endure. If you’re going to put yourself through all that, you’ve got to believe the end result is worth it. If The Witcher is not going to focus on “The Witcher,” then why would Henry Cavill want to devote years of his life to being “The Witcher,” hmm?

I, for one, miss the early days of The Witcher, when there were three main plots unfurling at totally different points on the timeline to keep track of. Now, everyone might be existing in the same timeframe, but the plot is all over the place, literally. As a result, the world of The Witcher has expanded, but at the cost of a center of focus. You could say that focus is Ciri, and that would be true, but it’s also not Geralt.

Maybe Netflix didn’t need to toss a coin to their witcher to get Cavill to stay, but some additional scenes.