Henry Cavill Officially Cast as Geralt of Rivia in Witcher Netflix Series
The first official casting announcement for the upcoming Witcher Netflix series has now been made; roughly two months after the audition process began. The headline role of Geralt of Rivia will be played by Henry Cavill, who expressed interest in the role some four weeks ago.
Henry Cavill Cast as Geralt of Rivia
The announcement was made via Twitter by Lauren Hissrich, the showrunner for the Witcher Netflix series. According to Hissrich, Cavill was the first actor she met with, long before the writers’ room even opened; “He was my first meeting,” she says; “I didn’t have writers or scripts yet – just a greenlight and a lot of passion. That was four months ago, and I’ve never forgotten the passion he brought. He IS Geralt.”
He was my first meeting. I didn’t have writers or scripts yet – just a greenlight and a lot of passion. That was four months ago, and I’ve never forgotten the passion he brought. He IS Geralt. He always has been. I’m so thrilled to welcome HENRY CAVILL to the #Witcher family.
— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) September 4, 2018
Interestingly, that means Cavill was well aware of the role, months before he commented on it during an interview with IGN at a press junket for Mission Impossible: Fallout. Most fans who saw his comments then drew the conclusion that he was merely interested in the role. At the time, Cavill spoke about his love of both the CD Projekt Red game series and the original Witcher novels by Andrzej Sapkowski. We now know that his comments weren’t merely based on unrelated interest, however; we now know that Cavill had already met with Hissrich to discuss the role of Geralt months before.
The announcement of Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia is the first casting decision to be announced. It’s currently unknown whether it will herald more announcements in the near future. It may be that casting is now drawing to a close, and the team will announce more decisions in the coming weeks. However, it’s also possible that, as discussions with Cavill seem to have started long before the casting process even began, that it may yet be some time before more casting announcements are made.