Doug Cockle, the actor renowned for portraying Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher series of video games, has told me he’s sad to see Henry Cavill leave The Witcher Netflix show.
Netflix announced Cavill would leave the show at the end of the series three. He will be replaced, in series four, by Liam Hemsworth, the brother of Marvel Thor star Chris Hemsworth.
“Well I think it’s really sad,” Doug Cockle told me during the latest episode of my podcast One-to-One, available everywhere now (look for “Eurogamer Podcasts”).
“And there’s a lot of people speculating on the reasons why he’s decided to leave, but whatever the reason is, I think it is sad, because Henry, he did a fabulous job as Geralt of Rivia.”
The pair met when Cavill invited Cockle to see the premiere of The Witcher Netflix series in London, Cockle said. It was where Cockle first saw what Cavill had done with the role he knew so well. They apparently spoke for a long time afterwards about it. “We spent a good, I don’t know, an hour or two, chatting about the Witcher world and being Geralt of Rivia,” he said.
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When I asked if he remembered what they talked about, he smiled. “You know, Rob,” he said, “I have a little memory of our conversation. I remember bits and snatches of conversation, but I think I was quite nervous! And I’d had a beer and it was one of those evenings where I felt a bit like a fish out of water, because it was at the premiere afterparty, and the vast majority of the people there were people involved in the production so they knew each other.