With the end of The Witcher season 3 Henry Cavill has now officially stepped down as Geralt of Rivia. How the series will navigate the switch to Liam Hemsworth is still not quite clear, but that won’t be the biggest issue for season 4!
Fans are still trying to cope with the fact that Henry Cavil won’t make his return as Geralt of Rivia, the legendary monster slayer, in The Witcher’s fourth season on Netflix. Yet, this casting change, with Liam Hemsworth picking up the silver sword, might not be the show’s biggest problem!
The Witcher on Netflix has been on steady decline when it came to adapting the books. This was also a major concern for Henry Cavill. Looking at the way the books are structured going forward, it looks like season 4 of The Witcher will have even more trouble adapting the original story in a coherent manner. Maybe it was a good thing that they weren’t entirely faithful from the start.
The Witcher Season 4: The Books Might Be Too Much For The Showrunners
The fact that the switch from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth may not be as smooth as the showrunners claimed it would be is no secret anymore (you can read up on that right here).
Fans had the slight hope that Geralt’s new face could be explained with the source material, even though Netflix doesn’t have the best track record of adapting the books. At this point, it doesn’t seem that likely anymore.
The biggest problem isn’t the recast, though: it’s the plot itself. Season 2 and 3 of The Witcher covered the events of book 1 and 2 respectively, so following that logic, book 3 would be next, right?
Welcome to the mess that might break The Witcher’s neck. The Witcher lives and dies with the dynamic of the found family, the White Wolf gathered around him with Yennefer and Ciri. Not only are they separated for now, they will be for quite some time.
As if that isn’t a hard enough pill to swallow, it gets even worse. The books aren’t structured like other stories where the reader’s are led from point A to point B to point C. It’s a rather unusual approach with lots of connected stories that form the overall narrative.
This means that book 3, which is supposed to be adapted in season 4, is basically just Geralt wandering around looking for Ciri who’s off having her own adventure that’s not really part of that book. Neither is Yennifer in general.
And that’s the problem: in the books, the beloved characters don’t have a clear beginning and end of their respective arcs. Ciri’s plot, for example, starts in book 2 but doesn’t really get resolved until book 4.
All the while, Geralt’s off doing whatever and never getting any closer to Ciri. And he now looks like Liam Hemsworth, possibly without explanation, and the showrunners need to basically cram 3 books in one season to move the plot forward.
Seems like lots of baggage for season 4 to deal with. It remains to be seen how Netflix is gonna fix this mess.
