The Witcher’s Henry Cavill Reveals What Stopped Him From Perfectly Recreating the Game’s Bathtub Scene

Netflix’s The Witcher might not be an adaptation of the video games by CD Projekt Red, but it’s difficult to escape some of the visuals that the games have established over the years. After all, the games arguably set the expectation for the Netflix series, even if they are both technically adaptations of the same work, the books by author Andrzej Sapkowski. Geralt of Rivia himself, Henry Cavill, acknowledged as much in a recent interview, and even revealed what prevented him from recreating the iconic bathtub scene as it appears in the video games.

Spoilers for the first season of Netflix’s The Witcher follow. You’ve been warned.

“I don’t know how many people realized how iconic it was, that there was already a visual attached,” Cavill says in an interview with BBC Radio 1. “And so, when I was getting into that bath, I was sitting there thinking, ‘I wonder if anyone knows how much this is going to explode, this particular scene.’ I was trying to put my feet up, and I couldn’t; the bath was the wrong shape. But I thought that might have been a bit much as well.”

Cavill’s attention to detail and lore should come as no surprise to anyone that’s been paying attention to any of the interviews or behind-the-scenes material that’s been released so far. He even recently poked a bit of fun of himself and his focus when breaking down one of the biggest scenes, shot by shot.

“Our strikes were exact, or at least looked exact,” Cavill previously said of the Butcher of Blaviken fight scene. “We were moving less than an inch away from each other’s heads. She had to move just enough and I had to make sure that I was close enough. So, if I was making a downwards strike, I have to redirect my sword, so it does end up being less than an inch away from her head when it misses. It’s a true dance and requires a lot of patience and a lot of skill.”

What do you think of Netflix’s The Witcher? Any particular… thoughts about Geralt’s bathtub scene? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Here’s how Netflix describes the series:

“Based on the best-selling fantasy series, The Witcher is an epic tale of fate and family. Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, 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.”

The first eight-episode season of Netflix’s The Witcher is available to stream on the platform now. It has already been renewed for a second season. Lauren S. Hissrich serves as showrunner. It stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, and Freya Allan as Ciri. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the latest and greatest adaptation right here.