Taking over from someone in a popular role is always going to gather some heat, but in the case of Liam Hemsworth donning the White Wolf wig previously worn by Henry Cavill in The Witcher, the new Geralt of Netflix's hit fantasy series had to take some drastic steps.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in advance of the new season arriving on the streaming service, Hemsworth talked about his effort to keep focused on the task at hand and ignore what fans were saying about the new kid on The Continent.
"There was quite a bit of noise, and I had to put that aside. It started to become a distraction. I dealt with that sort of thing in the past a lot and, you know, at the end of the day, I love making movies and I love telling stories and acting," explained Hemsworth. As a result, he took the only sensible approach when burdened with such a big gig and one that a massive audience was keeping a close eye on and being incredibly vocal about. "I just don’t want any of that to affect my way of telling the story that I’m trying to tell. I jumped off social media and the internet most of last year."
The Witcher's showrunner, Lauren S. Hissrich, has since broken her silence about Cavill's big decision to part ways with the show back in 2022. The one great thing to hear, however, is the trust that has been placed on Hemsworth's shoulders and knowing that the right replacement has been found. "I think he knew that he was stepping into big shoes. It was really important to him to have certain things [for] continuity — and also certain things that he could invent so that his Geralt could stand on his own two feet."
We'll see how the new Geralt carries himself when The Witcher returns (albeit looking a little different) to Netflix on October 30. If you've not seen it already, you can check out our first good look at season 4 here.
