The Witcher is an upcoming 8-episode Netflix series starring Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (The Defenders, Power) is spear-heading the project, adapted from the series of novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski.
Henry Cavill (Mission Impossible: Fallout, Justice League) has been officially cast as Geralt of Rivia aka THE WITCHER himself in Netflix’ upcoming series which is targeting a release in 2020. Cavill has hinted in previous interviews that he would love to play Geralt and that he was a big fan of The Witcher 3 videogame. “I just replayed all the way through,” Cavill told IGN at a press event for Mission: Impossible — Fallout. “Love that game. Really good game.” When prompted if Cavill would like to play Geralt, he replied,“Absolutely. Yeah, that would be an amazing role…The books are amazing. The books are really, really good… The books I started reading, and they are well worth a read.”
Showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich described the role of Geralt in the upcoming Witcher series as “stoic, circumspect, balanced, fierce, and as hiding a soft place in his heart that he’ll never reveal until the end and even then it will just be a hint.” Fans of The Witcher, know that there are have been eight novels released so far, beginning in the 1980’s, and that there have been three critically acclaimed videogame adaptations as well, but what’s the Netflix show going to adapt? The official synopsis reads as follows: The Witcher stories follow an unconventional family that comes together to fight for truth in a dangerous world. The release from Variety today expanded upon this with more story details: Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), is a solitary monster hunter, as he struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.
I’ve not read any of Sapkowski’s novels, but the author said he is thrilled with the Netflix team’s vision and has told fans that they will remain very true to the source material which is a nice plus for longtime fans. I’ve only played The Witcher 2 on Xbox 360, but in the wake of this exciting news I think I’ll go grab the third one, which has been hailed as one of the best action RPG games of all time. I’m also a very big fan of Cavill and think his performance in this year’s Mission Impossible: Fallout is his best to date. Considering that film has been a mega hit at the box office as well, Cavill has been a hot commodity in 2018, with some even saying he could potentially be the next James Bond after Daniel Craig finally gets the Hell out of there. I’m happy that Cavill chose The Witcher however and I’m excited to see what he does with the character — it’s nice to see a gamer and fan of the genre land this kind of role too. That’s a win for the nerds and if Cavill is a nerd – holy shit does that ever shatter the stereotype.