Netflix has released the full trailer for the new The Witcher: Blood Origin series where, once again, Henry Cavill fans are voicing their opinions as the trailer is getting massively disliked on YouTube.
The first teaser released last month has already been disliked 146k times on YouTube, and with the new trailer released today, the dislikes are outweighing the likes by more than a 2 to 1 ratio, as the new trailer has been disliked 16k times.
Why are Henry Cavill fans unhappy with The Witcher?
Fans aren’t at all happy that Henry Cavill is no longer playing Geralt of Rivia and have even launched a petition signed by over 270k fans to bring back Henry Cavill and fire the writers who have been said to mock the source material.
“NETFLIX: You MUST keep Henry Cavill as The Witcher and replace the writers instead,” states the petition, which continues, “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.”
It has also been reported that the actor has clashed with the showrunner over the direction of the series as Henry wanted to keep the series as close to the source material as possible; however, Cavill announced Season 3 will be his last, replaced in Season 4 by Liam Hemsworth.
“My journey as Geralt of Rivia has been filled with both monsters and adventures, and alas, I will be laying down my medallion and my swords for Season 4,” said Cavill in a statement posted to Instagram. “In my stead, the fantastic Mr. Liam Hemsworth will be taking up the mantle of the White Wolf.”
Cavill continued, “As with the greatest of literary characters, I pass the torch with reverence for the time spent embodying Geralt and enthusiasm to see Liam’s take on this most fascinating and nuanced of men. Liam, good sir, this character has such a wonderful depth to him, enjoy diving in and seeing what you can find.”
While it was thought returning to the role of Superman might have had something to do with his departure from The Witcher, that doesn’t seem to be the case as previous interviews with Henry Cavill saw the actor offer up that he would be able to do both Superman and The Witcher series, so it seems to be all about creative differences.
“The toughest part for me was finding that balance between the showrunners’ vision and my love for the books, and trying to bring that Geralt to the showrunners’ vision. It’s about treading a fine line there,” said Cavill last year. “It’s the showrunners’ story and so it’s an adaptation. The tricky bit for me was finding Geralt from the books’ place within that and being able to serve both as much as I could.”
What is The Witcher: Blood Origin about?
The new series is officially described as being set in an elven world 1200 years before the time of Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri, The Witcher: Blood Origin will tell a tale lost to history: the creation of the first prototype Witcher, and the events that led to the pivotal Conjunction of the Spheres, when the worlds of monsters, men, and elves merged to become one. This four-part prequel series premieres on Netflix on December 25.
The series stars Sophia Brown, Laurence O’Fuarain, and Michelle Yeoh, and is created by Declan De Barra and The Witcher showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich.
