Henry Cavill pushed for a more 'intellectual' Geralt in The Witcher season 2

Live-action tub action — (Image credit: Netflix)

Geralt of Rivia is not the most effusive fictional character of all time. He's not dull-witted or brutish—quite the opposite, in fact—but he tends to keep his own counsel as he goes about his business. And as a professional monster hunter, that business definitely has the appearance of putting brawn ahead of brains.

We may see a different side of him in The Witcher season 2, which debuts on Netflix in December. Series star Henry Cavill told Total Film (via GamesRadar) that he lobbied to portray the character as more than just biceps with swords in the next season.

"This season, I really wanted to make sure that we represented the book’s Geralt more accurately, and that we saw him speak more," Cavill said. "I pushed really, really hard for that."

That's not to suggest that he's suddenly going to be competing with Jaskier for stage time, of course: "He's still Geralt of Rivia, but he’s definitely coming across as more of an intellectual," Cavill said.

Cavill's remarks about taking a more cerebral approach to Geralt fits with recent comments from showrunner Lauren Hissrich, who said in October that the second season "plumbs completely new emotional depths for Geralt—as a lost love, as a father, as a son, as a brother, as a Witcher. It’s a delight to see."

The actor also revealed how he spent some of his free time during Covid-19 lockdown: A Witcher 3 Deathmarch run. "I decided to put it on the hardest difficulty possible to play, which I’ve done before, and it was really quite stressful!" he said. "I forgot quite how stressful it was."

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.