Loyal Gaming Fanbase
The Witcher, specifically The Witcher 3, is one of the most beloved games ever made. Indeed, the vast, sprawling world wasn’t perfect in terms of game development, and the Roach bug deservedly makes it onto CyberGhostVPN’s list of gaming bugs, but with so much quality elsewhere, that didn’t matter.
The Roach bug, which would see Geralt’s loyal companion defy physics to go wherever she wanted, was the most prevalent bug, but there were a few more in the game. Still, it didn’t matter, because the stories were powerful, the characters were incredibly well-defined, and the attention to detail in the lore and world was exceptional.
For all these reasons, players have spent hundreds of hours each in the realms of Temeria, Redania, and the Skellige Isles, getting to know Geralt best of all, as well as how the world works. It’s the quality of the games that even made Cavill a dedicated player of the game, a reader of the source material books, and want to play the role of Geralt of Rivia in the TV adaptation.
In the show, Cavill played Geralt to perfection. His persona, physique, mannerisms, and voice were all like the character from the books and game had been brought to life. Anya Chalorta (who plays Yennefer) also portrayed the sorceress very well. The thing that undid it all and undermined these performances, however, was the writing.
Poor writing undermining Cavill’s dream roles
Few would say that the DCEU movies were well-written, perhaps except the first Wonder Woman, with Cavill’s perfect casting as Superman wasted by convoluted and cringe-worthy story threads.
In The Witcher, Geralt is a side character in the first season without much purpose and then gets benched almost entirely in the second season. The writing is the core reason for the Metacritic scores for the show to be 62/100 and 6.7.
A reason why fans are somewhat happy for Cavill to be out of the roles of Geralt and Superman is that the productions simply didn’t deserve him. His performances far outstripped the writing, and viewers could see that. It’s also very well documented that he is a fan of the source material, and reports corralled by DigitalSpy suggest that it’s the writers deviating flippantly from the real works that have forced him to jump.
Cavill was also reportedly very keen to continue to play Superman in the new-look DCEU under James Gunn, but the popular director of Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad fairly admitted that a clean slate’s needed. Fans of Cavill can still revel in the fact that he’s worked his way into another of his dream roles.
Known for being a fan of the miniatures and having read up on the lore to a great extent, Cavill will now headline a live-action Warhammer 40,000 series. For years, players of the Games Workshop wargame have been clamouring for Cavill to play the Emperor of Mankind after his posts of painting various minis. Now, he’ll star in and be the executive producer of the 40K series – hopefully giving him enough control to stay true to the lore.
Cavill may be leaving a couple of roles that have secured his place in the hearts of fans, but they couldn’t be happier for him as now he may get to do right by a different geeky property that he’s passionate about.
