Brandon Sanderson Blames The Witcher's Failings On Not Listening to Henry Cavill

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:James Lucas

Published Jan 27, 2025

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Summary

Famed Mistborn author Brandon Sanderson says that Netflix lost a "visionary" when Henry Cavill stepped down as Geralt in The Witcher.
He believes that, had the studio listened to Cavill, the show might've fared better.
Why Cavill left is still a mystery, although fans speculate that it was due to creative differences.

Netflix's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Witcher has been mired in controversy since its very first season in 2019 given the various departures from Andrzej Sapkowski's novels, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:like killing Eskel. But the most controversial moment in the show's history was when Henr⛎y Cavill announced nearly three years ago that he was stepping down 🐽as Geralt of Rivia.

Many lamented the loss of a self-prescribed fan who they fervently believed to be fighting in their corner against a creative team who 'hated the source material', giving newcomer Liam Hemsworth some big boots to fill. It's no wonder he tried to curry favour ahead of Series 4 by saying that🎐 The Witcher 3 is one of the best games of all 🐬time.

He's up against unending skepticism, without so much as one episode having aired. Even famed Mistborn author Brandon Sanderson believes Cavill was the key to getting thi🥀s adaptation right.

Cavill Was A "Visionary", Says Sanderson

Speaking to , Sanderson discussed his concerns about the state of fantasy adaptations in general, discussing how many have faltered iꦿn recent years despite their enormous budgets. During this conversation, The Witcher inevitably came up.

"Streaming has had a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me wo🐻rried," Sanderson said. "Rings of Power and Wheel of Time have not gone as well as I would've hoped. Shadow and Bone lasted only two seasons, after a very strong first season.

We haven'༒t seen really great epic fantasy film television since the early, mid seasons of Game of Thrones.

"I really think the key member is that visionary filmmaker. Epic fantasy has responded poorly to too much overs✅ight fr♓om above. I think that was The Witcher's problem. You had that visionary: it was Henry Cavill. And they didn't want to listen to him. So, well, there you go."

It's unclear exactly why Cavill left. repo꧟rted that he only made a "short-term deal" for The Witcher, and decided to move on after three seasons instead of renewing his contract due to the demanding production schedule. However, fans speculate that it might have been due to creative differences, given his comments to the .

"The things that I pushed for, it was not necessarily just more dialogue," Cavill said. "It was bringing a more book-accurate Geralt to the screen. Because as I꧅'m sure you know in the books, Geralt is an amateur philosopher. He's an intellectual. He's wise and thoughtful. Yes, he's at times morose, morbid, and snarky. But it's important for me to have the character be three-dimensional [...] All of my asks were along the lines of just being faithful to the source 🌄material."

Whether it was simply too demanding to film, due to his upset over how the show was adapting the novels, or even his brief return as Superman before 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:James Gunn ꩵultimately recast the character, we don't kn🌳ow for certain. But whatever the reason, Sander🌜son argues that Netflix lost a "visionary" when Cavill left.