If you were wondering about why The Witcher has gone downhill since season 1, even with Henry Cavill still on board, it may be because at least a few of the higher-ups attached to the project may be a bit…delusional.
Producer Tomek Bagiński gave an interview with Polish outlet Wyborcza where of course, he was asked about Henry Cavill leaving The Witcher. Once again, he talks about how different actors play different pop culture icons over time, but this time he’s saying that The Witcher has reached some new threshold:
“I am most pleased that the series was created and became so popular,” he said. “The Witcher has already reached the level of Batman, Superman and James Bond. Maybe we hoped to see him in a new version only in a few years, but it happened now. And that’s nothing new for iconic pop culture heroes.”
Look, The Witcher has its fans spread across the games, books and show, but to say that Geralt of Rivia, because of the Netflix show no less, has ascended to the level of Superman, Batman and James Bond is hilarious. These are icons with decades upon decades of history across comics and/or film. I don’t think there really is a fantasy equivalent of any of them. Aragorn? No. Daenerys Targaryen? Still no. I’ll give you Harry Potter, I guess. And none of those have ever been recast.
This is part of Bagiński’s past defense where he justifies the recasting of Geralt as totally normal, previously saying that it was like James Bond, Doctor Who or Spider-Man. Now we’re adding Superman and Batman to that list I guess, since they’re on the same level as Geralt. Mhm.
This idea didn’t make sense when he first said it, and it doesn’t make sense now. Pretty much all the characters he mentions go through different “eras” in their film or TV adaptations. When you recast Batman, you are building an entirely new universe around Batman. Keaton, Clooney, Bale, Affleck and Pattinson are all fully separate universes, unless you get into stupid multiverse crap. And just ask Cavill how things work when you start a new era of Superman…
The Witcher is only replacing Cavill’s Geralt. Everyone else, Yen, Ciri, Triss, Jaskier, are all remaining the same. The entire world is the same, it’s just Geralt swapping to Liam Hemsworth for two final seasons. This is not the same thing at all.
Once again, this is just trying to cover up a fumble. Interesting, Bagiński hints there may be “more to the story” of Cavill’s departure, but doesn’t elaborate:
“I do not want to go into the reasons for this decision, because I learned about many things after the fact.”
I do think there is probably a larger story here than “Cavill didn’t think the show was faithful enough to the books,” but who knows when we’ll learn the rest. For now, good lord, stop making these ridiculous comparisons.
