Fans were prepared to see Liam Hemsworth take over the role of Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher Season 4, but Netflix went as far as replacing old scenes from previous seasons to showcase Hemsworth instead of Henry Cavill. The Witcher Season 4 has been a long time coming. After Netflix announced that Cavill would be replaced with Hemsworth, a large portion of the fanbase expressed their disappointment with the decision. However, Netflix tried to make the transition as seamless as possible.
At the beginning of The Witcher Season 4, which is now streaming on Netflix, the series took fans through a recap of the previous season and events that happened leading up to the new installment. Cleverly, Netflix didn't use any shots that showcased Cavill's Geralt up close, but when the actual episode started, it gave an in-universe explanation for the change in Geralt's appearance.
Specifically, Season 4 opened with a storyteller recalling important events throughout Geralt's life. One such instance was the story of the Butcher of Blaviken, and, as the storyteller was talking about the events, viewers were seeing a reenactment from Season 1, Episode 1, where Geralt fought a kikimora. However, instead of Cavill's face being present, it was Hemsworth's.
The Witcher then explained that the storytelling at the beginning of the season was set around 100 years after the events actually took place. Therefore, it was essentially explaining that, because of a sort of unreliable narrator, Geralt looks different to the viewers this season.
The scene that played out looked quite similar to the scene from the show's Season 1 premiere. Very few details were changed (for example, Geralt wasn't soaking wet in Season 4 like he was in Season 1), but it was just different enough for the unreliable narrator explanation to make sense.
Season 4 also went through other sequences from the show's history, where it slightly changed the events to make it look as though Hemsworth's Geralt was the one present during them.
For instance, the Season 4 premiere also reenacted a scene from the Season 1 finale featuring Geralt and Freya Allen's Cirilla (also known as Ciri), where the two finally meet face-to-face and share a hug.
The scene was shot a bit differently than it was in Season 1, but that was solely to reinforce the idea that in-universe storytelling has changed the public's perception of Geralt and the events he was a part of since they took place nearly a century ago.
The aspect of an unreliable narrator is not foreign to the Witcher universe. In fact, Andrzej Sapkowski's series of novels was meant to be a collection of stories told from different perspectives throughout the Continent and its history. Therefore, different details from certain events were different depending on who was telling the story, and two people didn't tell the same story the exact same way.
So, in a way, the show is adapting the storytelling strategy the books implemented and is using that as a way to explain why the show's central character was recast and looks different.
It is also worth mentioning that this was intentionally planned by The Witcher's creative team, not only to give fans a concrete reason for the recasting but also to reiterate the central motivation for the main characters.
The Witcher's Official Explanation for Changing Previous Scenes Featuring Henry Cavill
In a recent interview with GamesRadar, The Witcher showrunner and creator Lauren Schmidt Hissrich revealed exactly why the series decided to revisit certain Geralt scenes, and it actually makes a lot of sense. Essentially, the creative team was able to kill two birds with one stone while also implementing one of the core features of the source material.
Specifically, Hissrich revealed that she had the idea of these flashback scenes "really early on," and "thought there was a cool opportunity" to execute it in Season 4:
"I had this idea really early on, and I thought there was a cool opportunity to do two things. One, we have this storytime narrator. This is something that's in the books that we love. 'The Witcher' always comments on how important stories are… but also how storytellers change stories. We thought that was a cool way to comment on that."
While the scene got fans accustomed to seeing Hemsworth's version of Geralt in a unique way, Hissrich stated that it also provided the audience with a way of seeing Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri "together a little bit," since they have been split up.
The creator also revealed that the compilation acted as a reminder to fans that bringing that found family back together is what all three of those characters are "fighting for:"
"We needed the opportunity to see them together a little bit. We needed to remind the audience what this family looks like, what they're fighting for."
Hissrich confirmed what fans would have thought, which was that the flashbacks being slightly "wrong" was intentional. Ultimately, it was supposed to feel like it was being told "from a slightly different POV:"
"We had this ability to go back, recreate some of the more iconic scenes, but also get details wrong [and] make sure it looks different. It feels like it's from a slightly different POV."
So, the creative team's goal with the scene was to bring in the fact that stories told within the universe are going to change over time. Details will be adjusted, and things will look different depending on who tells the stories. However, at the same time, it created a perfect transition for Hemsworth to be introduced.
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