Liam Hemsworth is Geralt now. It was a whole three years ago that Netflix announced Hemsworth would be taking over for Henry Cavill in the lead role of its Witcher series. Since then we've been waiting to see where his performance would land on a scale from total trainwreck to "okay, I guess," which really felt like the best we could hope for from a major recast four seasons deep. Credit to Hemsworth, his performance is indeed: Fine. As if by design, the season's writing stuffs Geralt behind the rest of his adventuring party where he can't commit the sin of being memorable, even for being great, however unlikely that would have been.
The Witcher season 4 begins with a set of flashbacks recapping the series so far, sliding Hemsworth into retellings of old scenes as if he'd been there all along. It's a weird first gambit—Netflix attempting to swap the dead goldfish on us even though we've known this was coming for years. It was initially a bit uncanny as I kept trying to peer through the white wig, yellow eyes, grizzled stubble, and superhero silhouette to remember that yeah, that sure is a similar but different buff Hollywood guy.
For the full rest of the season Hemsworth continues to hit the high standard of just not cocking it up. I can almost hear a roundtable of suits sitting him down to say: "Listen bud, just get the baton over the finish line without tripping and no fancy moves, okay?" It's Hemsworth doing an impression of Cavill doing an impression of Doug Cockle because what else was he going to do, come in and redefine the role six years in?
The real disappointment is that maybe he could have pulled off a coup with a more lore-accurate Geralt if the show's writers had given him that chance. This would have been an ideal time to reorient Geralt from Cavill's gravelly grunting to the talkative, sarcastic, slightly petty and wounded warrior that he is in Baptism of Fire. This portion of the original Witcher books proceeds at a plod—for Geralt and the reader—but it's a major period of change for Geralt as he decides to stop standing on the sidelines playing at impartiality. He winds up literally on the front lines of the war between the northern kingdoms and the encroaching Nilfgaardian Empire.
Season 4 does spend time showing that happen: Geralt collecting his misfit band of friends as he attempts to track Ciri down (again) and the many instances where he plays an active role in the fate of common people. He opens up to his pals around the fire and learns to trust in them. Some of that affable Hemsworth brother charm could have really helped to sell these moments where Geralt is letting loose over moonshine in a remote workshop belonging to the group's new pal Regis the suspicious herbalist.
Instead, Hemsworth cleaves to the Cavill portrayal the show had already established as a brooding stoic. His adventuring party waxes and Geralt wanes, fading into the background of every scene he's in. Laurence Fishburne outclasses him in the soft-spoken philosophizing department as Regis, while Freya Allan talks circles around him with sarcastic banter in Geralt's flashbacks with Ciri.
There are moments where I think he'll nearly rise to it: a sharp-tongued insult to Yen in one of the opening flashbacks, a briefly philosophical comment in Regis's workshop. Then he fades back again, existing mostly as silent reaction shots to lines from other characters.
One of Netflix's promo shots for the season (above) captures the entire effect in a single frame: Geralt standing in the woods with Yennefer and Ciri with his face half-covered by Yen's hair. A shot so weirdly staged that it leaves its title character blurred in the background.
I can only assume that Netflix, having shot seasons four and five simultaneously, just wants to wash its hands of the remainder of The Witcher after it failed to retain the hype of its first season. It sure seems to be trying to check the series off with as little fuss as possible, and maybe judged that letting Hemsworth fade into the middle distance was better than the audience noticing his presence at all.
For more on the latest episodes of Geralt and the gang, see our Witcher season 4 review.
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