After Henry Cavill finally made his return as Superman following years of false starts, the actor dropped another equally as huge bombshell on the heels of his Black Adam cameo. He was leaving The Witcher. Cavill revealed that he’d be exiting the Netflix series, which did not go over well with fans and sparked strong reactions, and passing the mantle of Geralt of Rivia to Liam Hemsworth.
The Witcher brouhaha went down in early November, and since then, Netflix and the creative team have been relatively quiet about Cavill’s exit. But with the new spinoff series, The Witcher: Blood Origin, set to drop in the next few weeks, showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich finally addressed the elephant in the room. Via TechRadar:
“It’s a big deal for us, too,” Hissrich admitted when TechRadar mentioned how fans had negatively responded to Cavill’s impending depature. “And that’s the thing – there’s a lot of talk and rumors about and we fully understand why fans are going there.”
However, like a true pro, Hissrich quickly steered the conversation back to Blood Origin, which she understandably doesn’t want to be overshadowed by Cavill’s exit.
“What I will say is please come back for The Witcher season three so that we can continue to do this,” Hissrich said. “Obviously, that [Cavill’s departure] is huge news. But what I don’t want to do is – this has to stay about Blood Origin, Declan [de Barra, Blood Origin‘s showrunner], the cast, and the crew. This is their time in the spotlight.”
In fairness, Hissrich and Netflix are in a tough spot. They’re in the midst of building out a franchise that they hope will be the streaming platform’s Game of Thrones, but their main star just quit after three seasons. That’ll take the wind right out of your sails, and obviously, there’s a huge question mark around whether Hemsworth can right the ship.
The Witcher: Blood Origin premieres December 25 on Netflix.
(Via TechRadar)
