It has been a trying few days for Netflix subscribers who are fans of The Witcher. Less than two weeks ago, lead Henry Cavill let viewers know that he was “laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4” (meaning that the upcoming third season of the fantasy hit would be his last portraying the monster-fighting Geralt of Rivia) and announced that Liam Hemsworth was already on board to take up the mantle. As you might imagine, many are not happy that he’s left the show, and now they’ve called out Netflix in a new petition that’s already racked up well over 100,000 signatures.
What Does The Witcher Petition Say About Henry Cavill And Netflix?
I’m sure many people, at first, assumed that the newly reinstated Superman actor was backing away from his role on the series because of his increased responsibilities for the Warner Bros. property, but it wasn’t long before fans started to assemble a story that might have some basis in reality. The general thought is that Cavill wanted to stick more closely to the books on which the show is based, while the writers/showrunner had a very different idea. And, the popular Change.org petition, which was started on Halloween and is titled “NETFLIX: You MUST keep Henry Cavill as The Witcher and replace the writers instead,” calls this out, noting:
Henry isn’t leaving The Witcher because of Superman, Netflix executives have once again made a grave decision against delivering for their fans. The reason why The Witcher is such a popular show is the fans’ love of the source material of books and games, that are hated by and have actively been mocked by the writers and showrunner. Henry Cavill is one of those big fans, he knows all of it inside out and wanted to stay true to Sapkowski’s world, which is why Netflix wants to replace him.
If you think it sounds somewhat far-fetched that those who were crafting the storylines for the drama literally “hated” the source material, know that this idea hasn’t come from out of left field. Just a few days before this big news was announced, a former producer was answering fan questions about his new show when he directly called out the writers on The Witcher, saying they “were not [fans of] or actively disliked the books and games (even actively mocking the source material.)”
On top of that, we got another potential update when a report came out suggesting that Cavill was so put off by the direction of the series that he considered leaving after the second season, with him wanting a new version of Geralt that hewed more closely with that in the books being at least one reason. When you combine these things with how openly the actor talked about his love for the books and video games, and those behind the scenes saying how hard he campaigned for the job and worked to fully embody his character, the position taken by the petition does make some sense.
As of this writing, that petition has 139,251 signatures, but after sitting and watching the counter for a little over a minute, I can tell you that that number is sure to go up, and fast, as there was about one new signature per second. Part of the pledge that fans are making when they sign it is to stop watching the show when Cavill’s work is done at the end of Season 3, and to potentially cancel their Netflix subscriptions, as well, which has been part of fan campaigns to save cancelled shows before. The petition concluded with this nod to another hated fantasy show decision:
We already had to suffer through the disaster that was the end of Game of Thrones - NETFLIX don’t repeat the exact same mistake of holding onto writers and showrunners that believe themselves to be superior to the actual creator of the stories that made them successful.
I doubt that anything fans do will lead to the lead actor’s return and the entire writing staff being replaced, but at least they’ve made their displeasure known.
