A’very thrilled’ Liam Hemsworth is preparing for The Witcher’s changing of the guard as Henry Cavill steps down from his legendary role as Geralt of Rivia.
The fantasy series’ Season 3 volume 2 arrives on Netflix this week, as the monster-hunter-turned-dedicated-father continues his adventure with his daughter Ciri (Freya Allan), strong sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and devoted bard Jaskier (Joey Batey).
After the 40-year-old initially took on the lead role in 2019, the release will represent Henry’s final episodes before Liam, 33, takes over in season 4.
While many fans are saddened to bid goodbye to the Man of Steel actor, the creatives behind the scenes are excited to see the ‘transformation’ that the Hunger Games star’s entrance would bring, they claimed.
Andrew Laws, locations manager and production designer, disclosed that Liam has already visited the studio to go through ‘preliminary concept concepts’ as The Witcher’s universe develops in the fourth season.
‘The big thing I can share is that in season four our world grows even more. So we begin to explore new parts of the Continent that will be familiar to the fans, but that we haven’t yet seen in our series,’ Andrew teased, speaking to us ahead of the release of the second half of the third season.
‘So we’re exploring different location opportunities, both in the UK and outside the UK for different parts of the stories. We do know what our season is at this point. We do have scripts, so we are still advancing with what we’re doing in terms of pre-concepting locations and concepts for sets, etc.’
He continued: ‘So it’s a very exciting season. Liam’s been down to the studio, we’ve walked him through preliminary concept ideas for things. He’s very excited. He’s super enthusiastic. I think it’s gonna be a really great evolution for the show.’
Prior to the premiere of the first half of the third season in June, costume designer Lucinda Wright commented about Liam’s suit, without giving too much away about Geralt’s change.
‘I’ve met Liam briefly and he is six foot four and another beautiful specimen for a costume designer to showcase, so I’m very lucky. It’s very exciting as well because he’s going to bring something special,’ she said.
‘All actors bring some unique thing to it, and it’s going to be very exciting. I’m really excited about it, it’s going to be great.’
When asked if there would be an effort to differentiate Liam’s outfit from Henry’s, or if their ensembles will change and merge together between the third and fourth seasons, Lucinda said she is holding her plans close to her chest.
‘I myself know what I’m doing with him, but I’m not saying to anyone, even on production yet,’ she replied.
‘I need to see Liam again, see what he thinks and it’s going to be a mixture.’
Tomasz ‘Tomek’ Baginski, an executive producer on The Witcher, previously revealed Liam’s appearance, stating that it will make sense to fans of the franchise who are familiar with the lore of the stories, which originated with the novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski prior to the video game series.
‘I don’t want to go too deep, I don’t want to go into spoilers – but it’s very, very accurate with the lore of The Witcher,’ he shared.
‘People who actually know all the books and know book five and the idea that there are many versions of the same story… I think that they might like it quite a lot.’
The Witcher season 3 volume 2 drops on Thursday July 27 on Netflix.
