Has any major TV show managed to kill enthusiasm among its audience quicker than The Witcher? All it took was a solitary casting switcheroo for the masses to seemingly lose any and all interest they had in continuing to embrace Netflix’s ongoing adventures on on the Continent, which could spell bad news when there’s an entire shared universe in the works.
Swapping out Henry Cavill for Liam Hemsworth beginning with season 4 has put the fandom and the creative team in an unfortunate position, with the two sides potentially set to wage a war of attrition. Upwards of 200,000 signatures have been added to a petition demanding showrunner Lauren Hissrich and her cohorts quit so Cavill can stay on as Geralt of Rivia, while many supporters would rather see Netflix can the show altogether instead of carrying on with the recasting nobody wants.
Blood Origin arrives in just a couple of weeks, there’s another series aimed at children and families in development, and Hemsworth has presumably signed a contract that guarantees he’ll headline at least one season of the main show. Hissrich effectively begged people to watch the next run of episodes so that the expanded franchise isn’t given the axe by Netflix, but a furious Reddit thread makes it clear that a huge number of people are ready to give up on The Witcher altogether.
Outside of executive producer and lead writer Hissrich, writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach also addressed the concerns on Twitter, but ended up facing so much negativity that he blocked comments on his original post.
Things are far from rosy in the world of The Witcher, then, but even the most pissed off fans need to decide if they’re going to ignore season 3 to send a message or tune in to bid farewell to Cavill, and it’s a tough call.