Starting with The Witcher Season 4, Henry Cavill will no longer play Geralt of Rivia. Instead, Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf.
The news, announced on Oct. 29, is earth-shattering for fans of the Netflix fantasy series based on the books by Andrzej Sapkowski. Cavill’s performance hewed closely to the Geralt of the Witcher video games, and he had a clear love and respect for the source material. His departure after Season 3 — likely due to his return to the role of Superman in the DCEU — will no doubt feel strange, even if Hemsworth’s performance is top notch.
Season 4 of The Witcher may still be a while aways, but the worst thing it could do is treat the new casting like it’s business as usual. This isn’t a House of the Dragon time jump situation where we need new actors because a character has aged up — this is a full-on replacement of the lead. The Witcher needs to find some way to maintain its fans’ trust after such a big change, and the solution may very well be leaning into the strangeness of the entire situation. That’s right: It’s time for The Witcher to get meta.
It’s time for ‘The Witcher’ to get meta.
Of course, it may be difficult for the show to poke meta fun at itself while maintaining its tone. We can’t have Hemsworth turning to camera and going, « I bet you’re wondering how I ended up here, » but we can’t have The Witcher stay completely silent on the matter either. Luckily for us, The Witcher has a secret comedic weapon: bard Jaskier (Joey Batey).
Throughout both seasons of The Witcher (and presumably Season 3), Jaskier has constructed songs about Geralt’s exploits, as well as eternal break-up banger « Burn Butcher Burn. » These are meta-narratives in themselves, as Jaskier’s glowing portrayal of Geralt often embellishes matters or leaves out some of his adventures’ less savory details. Perhaps a song acknowledging that Geralt looks different is in order. If anyone could write a whole bop about Geralt, say, getting a haircut, it would be Jaskier.
Jaskier is also proof that The Witcher is able to get meta if it so chooses. In a scene in Season 2, a fan of Jaskier tells him he didn’t enjoy his songs’ multiple timelines: a common fan complaint about Season 1. Along those lines, The Witcher could use a song to get ahead of its audience’s apprehension about the Geralt switch. It’s a way of saying, « We totally understand that it’s weird. »
Best of all, this method of acknowledging recasting through meta song has already been used before with great results in the CW’s musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. And yes, I know that The Witcher and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend occupy very different spaces in the TV landscape, but hear me out!
Season 4 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend saw the return of fan-favorite character Greg, played in Seasons 1 and 2 by Santino Fontana and in Season 4 by Skylar Astin. When main character Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) meets « new » Greg, the two sing a duet called « Hello, Nice to Meet You, » pretending to meet again for the first time while also reminiscing about their shared history. It’s a perfect, witty riff on meet-cutes and the awkwardness of seeing a character you’ve grown to love embodied by a new actor.
I would never expect The Witcher to lean as hard into meta-comedy as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend did, because that would not be in keeping with the show’s tone. However, Jaskier’s meta-songs have set somewhat of a precedent and could be an important tool to help fans get accustomed to Hemsworth’s portrayal. So get to writing, bard! We’ll all miss Cavill, but a good song may very well help ease the pain.
