The Witcher’s Transition to Liam Hemsworth Will Be “Lore Accurate”

The Witcher’s executive producer claim that the transition from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth will be “lore accurate,” which could hint at another dip into the Witcher’s take on alternate worlds. Earlier this week, The Witcher executive producer Tomek Baginski told Yahoo News that the upcoming introduction of Liam Hemsworth as Geralt was taken somewhat from the books. “We have a very, very good plan to introduce our new Geralt and our new vision for Geralt with Liam,” said Baginski.”Not going deeply into those ideas because this will be a huge spoiler, [but] it’s also very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five.”

“It’s very lore accurate,” Baginski said. “It’s very close to what was set out in the books and I think this change will be quite flawless.”

While Baginski didn’t elaborate on the plot point, the final book of The Witcher series deals with Ciri traveling to multiple alternate worlds, including one featuring the Camelot of Arthurian myth. In the books, Ciri actually transports Geralt and Yennefer to another world after Geralt is grievously wounded in a riot, with both of those characters’ fates left ambiguous. Some fans believe that Ciri will somehow transport Henry Cavill’s Geralt into another world to explain the actor swap, while others believe that Ciri will somehow pull a Geralt from a different world into the world of the show. 

Season 2 spent a lot of time establishing the idea of The Witcher’s multiverse, with humans, dwarves, and monsters all appearing on The Continent (the world of The Witcher) after a cosmic event called the convergence. While the Continent originally belonged to the elves, humans quickly became the dominant force on The Continent, forcing elves into becoming an oppressed species. While Season 2 likely wasn’t meant to help ease The Witcher’s transition away from Cavill as the star of the show, that set up could now come in handy as the show prepares to finish its run with a new actor in its lead role. 

Our review of The Witcher noted that Cavill was the show’s biggest strength and painted a grim picture for what the show would be like without him. “While Cavill shines (or more accurately glowers with radiance) whenever he’s on screen, the pacing, effects, and acting from most of the remainder of the cast paints a grim picture for what the series will do when Cavill leaves the show at the end of the two-part season,” the review reads.

Season 3 of The Witcher debuts on June 30th.