After nearly two years of waiting, we've finally got our first proper look at Liam Hemsworth as Geralt in Netflix's The Witcher, and you know what? It's not bad. Not bad at all.
Hemsworth stepped into the role following the surprise departure of original Geralt-portrayer Henry Cavill, who left the series in October 2022 to pursue his Superman dream—which unfortunately for him, didn't quite work out as expected. (Don't worry though, he's found something else to do.) Hemsworth was cast shortly thereafter, and I won't pretend I didn't have doubts—but I also had big reservations about Cavill, and that worked out just fine.
It later turned out that Hemsworth was almost cast in the role the first time around, and made enough of an impression that when it came time to find Geralt 2, Netflix just gave him a call and said "you're in." So that's encouraging, at least.
Hemsworth doesn't speak in the new teaser, and we don't even get to see his face until he turns to face the camera at the very end. Otherwise, it's pure hype: A reflection over a pond, Geralt and Roach emerging from the mist, a closeup of the Wolf School medallion, and finally, the pause and slow, meaningful glance back: It's Liam, baby!
The look is good, but what I'm more interested in is this voice: Henry did a great job of capturing Geralt's low, raspy tone—which apparently happened by accident—and I genuinely wonder how Hemsworth will pull it off, or what sort of spin he'll put on it. I'm not terribly familiar with his past work but here he is delivering some sad lines in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay:
I don't know, maybe?
I'm also curious about how Netflix is going to explain the Witcher switcheroo. Some shows just power through it—Game of Thrones had three different guys portray the Mountain over its seven-season run, and we all just rolled with it—but executive producer Tomek Baginski said in 2023 that the change in this case will be "lore accurate." What does that mean? I have no clue.
It will be a little while yet before we find out, anyway. Today's tease didn't include any kind of release window for The Witcher season 4, but production only started in April—I don't know much about making TV shows but given that both seasons 4 and 5 are being filmed in tandem, I'd be surprised to see it arrive any sooner than the tail end of 2024.
