Swords swinging with no mercy. Chaos magic unleashing hell on the world. A ragtag group of outsiders teaming up to conquer evil… The Witcher is back.
Just two years ago, it was Henry Cavill at the helm as the gruff-speaking monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, with Anya Chalotra as powerful sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, Freya Allan as the prophesied princess Cirilla, and Joey Batey as the joyfully loyal bard Jaskier.
Now, for season 4 on Netflix, Liam Hemsworth is leading the charge. From the moment it was announced that Henry was stepping down from the role and he was taking over, the Hunger Games star has faced an uphill battle.
‘It’s such a big job, and he smashed it,’ Anya, 30, tells Metro during our interview at a hotel on the day of the London premiere of the fourth season.
‘He’s worked so hard, put so much time and effort into the physicality and the emotions of this character. We’ve had five years with these characters. He hasn’t. He was just so open and vulnerable with us.’
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‘He really does want to honour that character,’ adds Freya, 24.
One can’t discuss The Witcher – which is inspired by the original books written by Andrzej Sapkowski – without bringing up the character’s physicality.
Opening up on the ‘meticulous’ choreography of the epic fantasy, Joey, 36, emphasised that Liam, 35, brings an ‘animalistic brutality’ to his performance. ‘He’s a beast!’ he declares, the light shining brightly in his eyes as he recalls his days on set with his co-star.
Fandoms can be a tumultuous minefield to navigate. Speaking to Metro alongside showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Joey stresses that when they’re filming, they escape the hubbub by turning social media off.
Despite the barrage of opinions fired in her direction from diehard fans, as well as the high pressure and expectations regarding her depiction of The Witcher, Lauren doesn’t appear to let the outside noise bother her.
‘If you had to give me a choice, would I rather have a passionate fanbase that doesn’t always agree with me or a fanbase that doesn’t care? I love to have fans that care, and it doesn’t mean that they have to love everything that we do,’ the screenwriter says.
‘I think our job is to craft a vision and then to stick to that vision. Everyone has a different idea of what their Witcher is, so you just have to really stick to your guns and do it.’
Lauren, 47, admits that when Liam first came into the fold, they expected there to be ‘time to adjust’. However, he slotted in seamlessly with the rest of the cast, which includes The Matrix legend Laurence Fishburne in season four.
‘There was a lot of the spirit of season four that felt like we were going back to the beginning again. We weren’t scared to try new things this season, and we obviously had Liam stepping in with us,’ she says.
‘The truth is, Liam did so much preparation. He had his mind set on who this Geralt was going to be, how he would honour the character that had already been originated, and how he would bring his own flair to it.’
At the beginning of The Witcher season four, our lead characters are on separate, treacherous journeys. Geralt is regrouping after his battle with the villain Vilgefortz, which actor Mahesh Jadu had to film twice, with Henry and with Liam.
Ciri, who is hiding her true identity as the princess, has adopted the name Falka and is running around with the Rats, a criminal gang who steal from the rich.
Meanwhile, Yennefer is trying desperately to rally the witches to fight against Vilgefortz after the horrific losses that they suffered in the previous season.
Anya admits that the fourth outing ‘ends in a devastating way’… so fans had best be prepared for heartbreak.
‘There are certain characters which show you that there’s hope, and you’re going to want to follow that to see where it leads,’ she adds.
Jaskier, who is often seen as the light relief in the story, ‘is about to set off on the hardest and most arduous journey that the character will ever experience in his life’, Joey promises.
‘He is a loyal friend to Geralt. So we get to see not the loyalty that’s tested, but the lightness and the levity and perhaps the humour that’s tested.’
While Ciri might have gained freedom on her new journey with the Rats, it is also a difficult path for her, as she’s ‘carrying a lot of anger towards the world’, Freya says.
‘At her core, she doesn’t want to leave behind the people she loves. But I think that out of fear of abandonment, she abandons her past or tries to, and so it’s all about that journey.’
The process of making The Witcher might have now come to an end for the cast and creatives behind the show, but the journey is far from over.
The fifth and final season of the drama wrapped filming just a couple of weeks before our interview, and so just three weeks before season four launches on Netflix.
While Freya refrains from giving too many details, she admits that the final outing was the most ‘physically demanding’ to film.
‘It was very interesting to wrap the show for good and then launch into season four press – in some ways, a rebirth of the show that we just finished,’ Lauren remarks.
‘We’re all very proud of what we’ve accomplished and that we survived it, because it was a rollercoaster ride. Joey and I were just saying we started together seven years ago, which is wild. It’s a celebration.’
The Witcher season 4 launches on Thursday October 30 on Netflix.
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