The Witcher Boss Finally Confirms Real Reason Henry Cavill Quit

The showrunner behind Netflix’s The Witcher TV adaptation has finally revealed the official reason why Henry Cavill left the show, and it pretty much confirms what we assumed all along.

Season 4 of Netflix’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher is set to drop in a few days on October 30, but those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the drama behind the scenes may be surprised to see that Geralt of Rivia is sporting a new look (by which I mean, a new face) for the latest season.

Back in 2022, months before season 3 of The Witcher dropped, Henry Cavill released a post on Instagram detailing his return to the DCEU, following his cameo as Superman in the film Black Adam.

Roughly a week later, Cavill once again posted on Instagram about his departure from The Witcher, stating: “My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4. In my stead, the fantastic Mr Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf…”

Of course, Cavill wouldn’t end up reprising his role as Superman again, following a creative shift at Warner Bros that resulted in the creation of the DCU, and ultimately David Corenswet’s Superman film earlier this year.

Still, many assumed that, given the liberties that the writing team at Netflix took with the show, Cavill left following creative differences (as he has stated several times that he’s a huge fan of the source material).

Turns out that the simplest answer was the correct one the whole time, as The Witcher’s showrunner Lauren Hissrich told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview.

"He had plans for other roles that he really wanted to commit himself to,” Hissrich revealed to Entertainment Weekly.

“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.”

I don’t doubt that Cavill had his issues with the changes that the Netflix team made to The Witcher’s story, but it’s pretty clear to me, given that there was barely a week in between his DC-related announcement and his The Witcher post on Instagram, that scheduling conflicts necessitated him leaving.

Kind of sucks for him that he ended up leaving one project he cared about for another project he cared about even more, only for neither to work out in the end.