Henry Cavill will have a "heroic sendoff" in The Witcher, promises showrunner

Henry Cavill as Geralt in The Witcher season 2

(Image credit: Netflix)

The Witcher showrunner has teased more of what’s to come in the third season of the hit Netflix series, including a "heroic sendoff" for departing Geralt actor Henry Cavill.

"Henry has given so much to the show and so we want to honor that appropriately," Hissrich told Entertainment Weekly of the actor’s farewell.

"Geralt's big turn is about giving up neutrality and doing anything that he has to do to get to Ciri. And to me, it's the most heroic sendoff that we could have, even though it wasn't written to be that."

"Geralt has a new mission in mind when we come back to him in season 4," Hissrich said. "He's a slightly different Geralt than we expected. Now, by the way, that's an understatement."

While news of Cavill leaving The Witcher may cause consternation with some fans, Hissrich’s words on the upcoming adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Time of Contempt novel will likely ease fears that the show is drifting too far from its source material.

"What is so interesting is that season 3, to me, is the closest thing that we've done as a one-to-one adaptation of the books," Hissrich said. "Obviously, we can't do every page, but Time of Contempt gave us so many big action events, plot points, defining character moments, huge reveals of a big bad. There's so much to do that we were able to stick really, really closely with the books."

The Witcher season 3 is streaming on Netflix in summer 2023 – before then, catch The Witcher: Blood Origin on December 25. For more from the streamer, here are the best Netflix shows you should be watching right now.