Why is Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher?

Henry Cavill's final season as Geralt of Rivia is now underway on Netflix. The Superman actor will be playing the White Wolf in one final set of episodes in The Witcher season 3 before The Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth joins in his place.

The news came as quite a shock back in late 2022, but we still don't know exactly why Cavill stepped back from the Netflix show. To help you make sense of it all, we've taken a deep dive into everything he's said so far.

Starting off with the man himself, when Cavill announced his exit, he shared a statement. "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," he wrote on Instagram. "In my stead, the fantastic Mr Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf. As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam's take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men."

While he didn't address an exact reason, some viewers also noticed that he spoke a few days prior to the announcement about decisions made in his career on the Happy Sad Confused podcast on October 27.

"It’s just about belief. If you believe what you’re doing is the right thing then you’ll be able to keep on doing it," he told host Josh Horowitz about his work ethic (H/T Independent). "It’s also important to know that if you realise you’re doing the wrong thing, that’s when you stop doing the wrong thing. You don’t just keep going just because, because that leads down a dark path."

Elsewhere, a report from The Witcher fan website Redanian Intelligence suggested Cavill had initially been looking to leave after season 2 as he and the producers "weren’t seeing eye to eye" in terms of Geralt’s overall role in the show.

The actor previously made it clear during the season 2 press tour that he was campaigning to make Geralt more book accurate. This may have also played a part in it, although it's not been confirmed by anyone involved.

"It’s important for me to have the character be three-dimensional," the actor told Philstar in December 2021. "And it’s tricky to do, as I was saying earlier, because there’s a certain vision and there’s a certain set storyline and plot. And so, it was about me trying to find Geralt’s place within that. All of my asks and requests were along the lines of just being faithful to the source material."

Other speculation at the time left people wondering if Cavill was leaving the show to focus more on his DC commitments. In the Black Adam post-credits scene, the actor returned as Superman, much to the surprise of many fans (well, at least those who hadn't seen Dwayne Johnson's Twitter timeline).

However, if it did play into it, we'll never know as new DC Studios head James Gunn later confirmed that Cavill would not be back as the Man of Steel. After that, it was also announced this would not impact the actor's exit from The Witcher either.

Cavill does have a reasonably busy plate despite this, which could also have impacted his departure too. Among his projects is the upcoming Argylle, a potential Warhammer project, and a new Guy Ritchie film.

It may be a while before we hear from Cavill on an exact reason behind the departure. He wasn't part of season 3's press trail, only appearing at two events to promote the show: TUDUM in Brazil and the premiere. While he didn't speak about his exit, Cavill was given a standing ovation from fans and co-stars in the room to mark his final season, which you can see here.

So we'll have to wait and see if any more comes to light about the decision. In the meantime, check out all of our The Witcher season 3 stories here:

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