Geralt of Rivia is looking slightly different in The Witcher season 4, and that's because Henry Cavill has been replaced by Liam Hemsworth in the leading role. No spoilers here, but we're about to see exactly what that means when all eight episodes drop on Netflix on October 30.
Back in October 2022, Cavill announced that season 3 would be his last outing, writing in a statement on Instagram: "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.
Because The Witcher's main series is ending after five seasons, which were filmed back-to-back with season 4, Hemsworth is in for the duration. We're yet to find out how the show addresses the change, but the official trailer gives us our first glimpse of what the new Geralt is like. Deep voice, distant stare... it's all there.
But I wasn't satisfied with a mere two minute trailer to tell me what I wanted to know, so I asked showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich as well as cast members Laurence Fishburne and Joey Batey what to expect. Interestingly, the new changes seem to run deeper than I expected.
'Magnificent' Liam Hemsworth makes Geralt more 'emotional' and 'vulnerable' in The Witcher season 4
"He walked in, he jumped in without any fear, without any trepidation. If he was nervous at all, you would never have known it," Fishburne tells me. "He had absolute confidence. He brought his intelligence, humor and obviously, his physical stature to swagger. He's just magnificent as the Witcher.
"The way Lauren and her writing staff crafted his entrance, the way he's introduced, is really fun. It's really brilliant, succinct. It just goes, boom, boom, boom, you're in, let's go. It's really wonderful."
"He just became our brother, really" Batey adds.
If you're wondering when Fishburne came into the show, you haven't seen him yet. He's the other new but well-known face joining the season 4 cast alongside Hemsworth, taking on the role of Emiel Regis Rohellec Terzieff-Godefroy, aka Regis. In a nutshell, he's going to be a prominent force during new Geralt's time on screen.
For Schmidt Hissrich though, we're entering much more emotional territory with Geralt. With season 3 leaving us on the cliffhanger of Geralt, Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) and Ciri (Freya Allen) being split apart, the new goal of reuniting his family will feel like a very personal one.
"The stories lent themselves to this change, because Geralt is also going through something he's never gone through before," she explains. "So he's able to access these different emotional, more vulnerable places than we've not seen, and he's joining this sort of new family.
"Obviously, Jaskier has been there from the beginning, but you have these new characters that are joining Geralt on his path. So it's was a completely new dynamic, no matter what. It felt like the birth of a new family."
Intriguing... bring on October 30, I say.
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