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The Witcher season 4's new Geralt, Liam Hemsworth, says he's not trying to "redo" what Henry Cavill did

Speaking ahead of his debut as Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher season 4 lead Hemsworth went into what he wanted (or rather, didn't want) out of his own performance

Good news for you Witcher fans who were worried Liam Hemsworth couldn't do what Henry Cavill he did - he ain't trying. Yes, after taking over the role of Geralt of Rivia (the titular monster-fighter in Netflix's megahit dark fantasy saga), Hemsworth wanted to purposefully stray away from his performance becoming a downright impression of what's come before, as he revealed in an interview ahead of season 4.

Hemsworth made the comments in a recent joint conversation he did with Witcher's showrunner and series creator, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, for IGN. As you might guess, the topic of Hemsworth taking over the role from Cavill was at the very forefront if the interview, and the Hunger Games actor was happy to share what that process looked like from an acting perspective.

"We tied a few of the earlier things that Henry had done when he was portraying the character," Hemsworth told the outlet, "To the beginning of me taking over the role… I didn't want to directly try to redo anything that he'd done. I initially had a little bit of hesitation towards that. And then after some talks with Lauren and the writers, we felt like it was a way of throwing back to some earlier things that we've seen The Witcher do already, and saying, 'Here's my version of it, and we're going to move forward with it.'"

So if we're reading this correctly, Hemsworth seems to have come to set looking to do something very different, from his perspective, with the role than Cavill did, but the powers that be decided there needed to be at least some homage to the first titular Witcher of Netflix's hit fantasy series.

"Once I got on set and really understood where Henry left the role," Hemsworth continued, "And I understood where I was picking it up, it was no longer about having to think about that. It was just where I'm going and how I got here. And then what I do is try and be present and focus on what my motivation is moving forward. So as long as I understood emotionally where this character was at this point in the story, my job going forward became the same as it as it ever is: I’m just focusing on the direction I'm moving in, and trying to understand why I'm going that way."

Liam Hemsworth's outing as The Witcher in season 4 debuts on Netflix October 30.


Return to the Continent - be it the original Witcher books, the great Witcher games, or the excellent Witcher TV series franchise at Netflix. To help you on your journey, we have our key articles about Geralt's adventures here:

Grant DeArmitt

Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.

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