If The Witcher fans have been racking their brains wondering how Liam Hemsworth would pick up the leather mantle of Geralt of Rivia, the wait is over. Season 4 of Netflix’s adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books is here, with Henry Cavill bowing out of the titular role last season.
Cavill’s last scene as Geralt, in the final episode of The Witcher Season 3, Volume 2, was an exhilarating fight scene. So, how does The Witcher team wheel in a new Geralt? By literally dropping him into Cavill’s existing scenes. As Mashable’s Belen Edwards predicted, The Witcher got meta.
With showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich back at the helm, the Witcher team has re-filmed parts of the series with Hemsworth in Cavill’s place. In a recap that slots the new hire into the narrative to date, The Witcher Season 4, episode 1 has a young girl and a man narrating key moments from the legendary tale of Geralt of Rivia — just as one that people might remember differently. “And when it all seemed lost,” the man narrates in the Season 4 opener, “Geralt rose again.” It honestly feels like this line comes straight from the production team itself.
The first scene of Season 4 recreates the very first scene of The Witcher Netflix series, in which Geralt fights the eight-legged kikimora in the swamp in Season 1. It was the introduction of Cavill as Geralt, the shiny new screen version of Sapkowski’s protagonist, rendered famous again by voice actor Doug Cockle in the CD Projekt Red games and Netflix animated film Sirens of the Deep. In Season 4, episode 1, amusingly titled “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger,” the show reintroduces with Geralt fighting the kikimora again, but this time, we only see his face (Hemsworth’s) at the end of the fight.
Hemsworth’s Geralt fights the kikimora, which introduced Cavill’s Geralt.
Credit: Netflix
Here, the writers also give Hemsworth the character’s signature line: “Fuck.” Reader, it’s no gravelly Doug Cockle “Fuck” or Henry Cavill-channelling-Doug-Cockle “Fuck.” It’s a pretty feeble attempt, in my humble opinion, but it’s a box ticked.
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This is not the only Cavill-to-Hemsworth recreated scene in Season 4, episode 1. There’s a montage of Hemsworth’s Geralt and Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer of Vengerburg establishing their tempestuous relationship, and a re-shot scene of Geralt meeting Freya Allen’s Ciri for the first time in the Season 1 finale as his “Child Surprise.”
In another key moment, Hemsworth appears in a re-shot scene from the Season 3 finale in which Vilgefortz of Roggeveen (Mahesh Jadu), the Big Bad mage everyone’s been thinking was Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen), kicked the shit out of Geralt on the beach by Aretuza — don’t worry Jaskier (Joey Batey) and Milva (Meng’er Zhang) got him all healed up and back in those boots.
Henry Cavill’s Geralt got absolutely smacked by Vilgefortz in the Season 3 finale.
Credit: Netflix / Susie Allnutt
By getting meta and leaning on the storybook opening, The Witcher Season 4 urgently reminds the audience that Geralt is a character, quite literally including a shot that zooms into an illustration that becomes a real scene starring Hemsworth.
Honestly, the show feels weird without Cavill, who spent three seasons fine-tuning the character, and with Hemsworth never quite embodying the grunt and open disdain that Cockle and Cavill bring to the role. But if you’re into The Witcher universe and want to dive back into it, it’s got most of the lavish production elements from the first three seasons and well-hewn characters beyond the titular witcher.
The Witcher Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.
