The internet has had a good few days to digest the saddening news that Henry Cavill will be hanging up his silver and steel swords after his third season as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher TV series on Netflix. Honestly, everyone is still seething.
While Cavill appears to have stepped out of his own accord, perhaps because he can’t accommodate the show in his schedule anymore, we doubt that the man himself had much of a say in who would be stepping up to replace him—with that person turning out to be Liam Hemsworth.
Now that we’ve sat on the shocking recasting for a few days, here’s a compilation of memes and tweets which pretty much sum up The Witcher fans’ collective loss of faith in the decision makers over at Netflix.
The expletive that keeps on giving
Henry Cavill’s deadpan, yet somehow impactful delivery of the f-bomb mere moments before he became The Butcher of Blaviken in The Witcher’s first episode has become one of the most celebrated and memeified moments from the series. Sadly, it’s more appropriate now than ever. Seriously, how could Liam Hemsworth ever match Cavill when it comes to dropping the world’s most versatile curse word?
The process of grief
While Netflix tries to gently reassure The Witcher fanbase that everything is going to be okay, and with Henry Cavill coming out with words of support for Liam Hemsworth stepping into his shoes, we still can’t help but feel like Walter White in this fitting Breaking Bad clip.
The compromise no Witcher fan asked for
There was never any sort of hard confirmation that Henry Cavill’s return to the role of Clark Kent had any sort of impact on his decision to step away from The Witcher. However, the timing seemed pretty uncanny considering just days before the news, Black Adam hit cinemas and made the revelation that Henry Cavill would once again don the iconic red cape. Fans of both properties would’ve been happy for a split second, before realizing that the world has a delicate balance of good and bad.
The complete and utter heartbreak
We can’t deny it’ll be great to see Cavill play a less brooding and more optimistic Superman with a new lease on life in upcoming DC projects. That won’t stop fans from having a little weep in 2020-whenever-season-four-comes-out when they see Liam step in.
The speculative reasoning
It came to the attention of the masses recently that the writers behind The Witcher’s Netflix adaptation aren’t all that into the source material by Andzej Sapowski. Coupling that with Cavill’s adamance to do justice to Sapowski’s work, many fans put two and two together that the future of the series may veer too far off course and in a bad way. We’ll get more concrete evidence on this theory when Cavill returns as Geralt one last time in The Witcher’s third season.
The discount Geralt
There’s plenty among us that would argue that even considering replacing Cavill as the titular Witcher is an absolute farce, akin to the minstrel gags seen in Thor-related MCU projects when Matt Damon steps into the shoes of a stage actor playing Loki. This is relatable. Speaking of Thor…
The discount Thor
BossLogic’s render of Liam as Geralt doesn’t look all that terrible. Even the artist himself admits the actor looks like a white-haired discount (or in his kinder words, variant) Thor. Understandable, considering he’s the Thor actor’s brother and all, but it’s going to be tough to unsee. Just give us Henry Cavill back.
The fan art
BossLogic gave us his professional take, and this fan gave their best Microsoft Paint effort. Discount Thor still remains an apt description of this admittedly amusing and hastily made fan art.
The real question
Henry Cavill absolutely, without a doubt, and in every sense of the word, slays with his White Wolf wig. Still, there is undoubtedly a question on everyone’s mind, one which Dominic Monaghan posed to Elijah Wood in hilarious fashion—has Liam Hemsworth worn wigs?
The alternative casting choices
Henry Cavill is hot Hollywood property, we get it. The man was Superman first, after all. If Netflix was intent on letting the series move forward without him, so be it. However, was Liam really the optimal choice? Just look at the above pictures of Mads Mikkelsen, for instance. While a bit older, they could pull a House of the Dragon-esque time skip, and we probably would be a lot more onboard with the concept.
The Jaskier of it all
Geralt and Jaskier had a somewhat icy relationship when The Witcher’s second season kicked off. Only now we can finally begin to truly empathize with the bard’s ballad about his thoughts on The White Wolf. When the person we know and love forsakes us, how can we come to love the man who takes his place? Burn, butcher, burn.
The author’s thoughts
Over two years ago, The Witcher author Andrzej Sapowski spoke to Forbes about how thrilled he was with Cavill being cast as Geralt, and likened him to Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings. There is no higher tick of approval than from the man who made the legend. Seriously, could you imagine if Aragorn were ever recast in The Lord of the Rings? Tolkien fans would have rioted.
Seeing the bright side
At the end of the day, there’s always a speck of optimism to be found in news like this, as this post points out. Granted, we’re comparing the technological limitations of a rapidly evolving video game medium to swapping out one human for another, but the author of this post makes a good point. Geralt’s change of appearance won’t be as jarring as it was between the trilogy of Witcher games.