The sword-brandishing monster fighter from Netflix’s The Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, has come to be known as one of the most iconic roles to be portrayed by Henry Cavill. With the burden of protecting Princess Cirillia to the end, Cavill’s Geralt mostly served up rather grim sequences. Except for his budding love story with Anya Chalotra’s Yennefer, of course! However, the Man of Steel actor who led the series had a rather contrasting outlook on his character. 

Two years before parting ways with the show, he revealed how one dynamic allowed him to indulge his creative vision for Geralt. 

Henry Cavill wanted to do this with his Geralt of Rivia part

Before The Witcher’s third season was released, Cavill bared his heart to Philstar in 2021 about an upcoming scenario. Apparently, he wanted to highlight the camaraderie between the Witchers in the Witcherverse, especially the one between Geralt and the oldest remaining Withcher of all. Particularly while bringing this Geralt-Vesemir dynamic to life, he wanted to lean on building a “strong emotional bond” between their characters. 

According to him, the ancient Witchers that led such “hard lives” had a rather wise air of “softness” about them. Since his character was set to encounter Kim Bodnia’s Vesemir, he felt that the series should follow the source material that portrays the two characters as being “extremely close” to each other. However, he had another reason for wanting to do so.

He expanded on how he felt it was necessary to portray them so.

Why and how did Cavill do this?

In the conflict-filled world of The Witcher, some part of the Continent is always at war with another. Amidst it all, even the few remaining Witchers tend to get along with each other. Since Cavill felt that Vesemir and Geralt’s relationship came as a breath of fresh air in all the “conflict”, he wanted to highlight that. Well, he believed that this made his character more “three-dimensional”. 

Especially since the White Wolf rarely displayed that side of his personality, the British actor’s transformation into this new Geralt surprised fans. He balanced the softness in Geralt’s nature by incorporating his raspy voice. Not only was his tone accurate to the lore but also served as the perfect soundtrack to his tender journey with Vesemir. So, somehow the 40-year-old did manage to pull off his vision before exiting the series. 

Did you agree with Cavill’s vision for the Geralt-Vesemir dynamic? Share your thoughts in the comments.