The Witcher, or There and Back Again

At one time, the The Witcher series, based on the literary source material and the popular video game lineup, became something of a refuge for Henry Cavill after the collapse of the DC film universe under Zack Snyder. The actor was thought to have found himself a comparable franchise that would become his grandiose solo project for years to come. At any rate, Cavill was originally slated to appear in seven seasons of the The Witcher adaptation. But in the fall of 2022, he unexpectedly for most fans abandoned the further story of Heralt of Rivia and decided to enter the same river a second time, that is, once again put on a suit of Man of Steel.
Cavill himself has previously stressed on several occasions that the opportunity to play the main character of The Witcher was something of a dream come true for him. "I really enjoy playing these games and reading these books in my spare time. I don't consider it a job. It's more like an extraordinary opportunity for me to live out my childhood and adult fantasies," he said in an interview back in 2019. And the start of The Witcher was indeed impressive, at least if the official Netflix streaming stats are to be believed. But then something went wrong.
And the problem wasn't just in the creative decisions of the show's creators, but also in Henry Cavill himself. after all, he is a fan of the source material - both books and games - and clearly wanted to be part of an accurate adaptation that brought to life everything he loved so much about Andrzej Sapkowski's novels and classic game adaptations. But the team behind the The Witcher series has clearly shown little respect for the source, and it seems as if the story is increasingly deviating from the one the actor was a fan of.
Yes, Cavill had previously counted on seven seasons of The Witcher, but there was one important caveat. He insisted that he would only stay on board "as long as we can keep telling stories that pay homage to the author's work." However, it has long been clear that the team working on The Witcher did not share the same attitude.
The finale of the second season of the series went in a completely different direction than in the books by Sapkovsky, especially as far as the main villain - the Immortal Mother, which does not exist in the novels. The comments of screenwriter Bo DeMaio, who explained that he left The Witcher in part because of his colleagues' attitudes toward the games and novels, also added fuel to the fire. "Some of them weren't fans or actively disliked the books and games and even actively mocked the source material," he complained on his social media page. It's easy to see why a fan of the franchise like Cavill would be unhappy with this approach and work environment.
Already there are signs that the third season of "The Witcher" will deviate even further from the plot of the books, such as Robbie Amell playing, apparently, a major elven character who is not in the works. Presumably, the "The Witcher" writing team, and especially showrunner Lauren Schmidt, did not intend to stick strictly to the literary source material going forward, which led to a deepening disagreement that made Cavill feel that he could no longer be a part of the popular show.
He eventually made the decision to return to a more understandable medium. Not only Superman, whose potential in this new reality for DC Studios and Warner Bros, has yet to be revealed, but projects from trailblazers such as Guy Ritchie. We now know that Cavill will star in the director's spy thriller, a role that indirectly ties him to Bond. As for "The Witcher," the vacant seat will take Liam Hemsworth. And with all due respect to the latter's acting abilities, this is disappointing news for fans of The Witcher, and it puts the entire future of the franchise in question.