‘The Witcher’s Showrunner Confirms the Major Difference Between Henry Cavill’s Geralt and Liam Hemsworth

Netflix just wrapped production on The Witcher’s fifth and final season, and with Season 4 premiering October 30, showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich is finally talking about the biggest question since Henry Cavill’s exit: what actually changes with Liam Hemsworth under the white wig? Short answer—that famously stone-faced witcher is allowed to smile now, as Hissrich told IGN.

“When we were looking at who potentially could fill the shoes of Geralt, there is a physicality that has to be present. You need someone who you can imagine can excel at these action scenes, who has such a physical presence that they could be both intimidating in the story, but also, Geralt has a huge emotional side as well… What I really loved about Liam’s work that I had seen is that he was able to organically blend those two things… he was able to really carry this specific, I guess I call it soul. He has a soul that he brings into the role… to have that present even through action scenes when he’s fighting monsters, and it’s the same thing that’s present when he’s having conversations with Ciri or with Yennefer.”

Because Geralt starts Season 4 weaker and wounded after Vilgefortz, Hissrich and the writers adjusted the character’s “voice” to fit Hemsworth’s cadence and the arc. “It absolutely impacts things… Even once we wrote all the scripts, once we started filming them, we started making adjustments to make sure that things sounded more natural coming out of Liam’s mouth,” she said. And yes, the famous economy of words has been rebalanced: “We brought back some grunting and some sighing and some humming and certainly some ‘fucks’ now and then. But we also allowed Geralt, specifically, in these emotional moments, to have lengthier… I don’t want to call them speeches, but lengthier conversations with his comrades.”

How Is Liam Hemsworth’s Geralt Different from Henry Cavill?

The other big shift is tonal, and it came from Hemsworth’s first Zoom with the team. “Liam has such a cheeky grin, and it is one of the very first things that we actually talked about,” Hissrich recalled. “One of the things that he talked a lot about was for this dry wit that Geralt has, and that, in all honesty, he didn’t feel like was very present in the show. It was something he asked if I would be open to seeing more of.”

Hemsworth connected that to Geralt’s inner life: “My interpretation of this character is Geralt is a deeply empathetic person… At this point in the story, we’re really seeing him go through a lot of changes… It is purely the fact that he actually is able to be vulnerable with his friends and meet this chosen family that he’s able to lean on them and find the courage and find the strength.”

There’s a respectful handoff built in, too. “I didn’t want to directly try to redo anything that [Henry Cavill had] done,” Hemsworth said. “We tied a few of the earlier things that Henry had done… to the beginning of me taking over the role… saying, ‘Here’s my version of it, and we’re going to move forward with it.’” Cavill set the tone back in 2022: “As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men. Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”

The Witcher returns to Netflix for Season 4 on October 30, 2025.