Image: Netflix
Henry Cavill’s final appearance as Geralt of Rivia will arrive later this month.
Netflix’s The Witcher adaptation will officially bid Henry Cavill farewell later this month, when Season 3 Volume 2 drops on July 27. Volume 2 consists of just three episodes that will end his run on the show, before Liam Hemsworth replaces him permanently as Geralt of Rivia.
Watch the trailer below:
Season 3 of The Witcher adapts Andrzej Sapkowski’s novel Time of Contempt, following Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri as they flee from enemies searching for the witcher's young apprentice, and attempt to seek refuge in Aretuza, a training area for mages situated on an island. Volume 1 ended with the trio coming into conflict in Aretuza, and Volume 2 will likely resolve that conflict and adapt the rest of the novel.
The trailer teases quite an emotional adventure for the trio, as lines from Yennefer and Jaskier hint that the group will not be separated if they can help it. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ll have their work cut out for them if they want to keep Ciri safe - the trailer shows off a lot of fighting both within Aretuza and without, with burning rings of fire descending upon cities and swordfights on mountaintops. Volume 1 featured a more slow-burn trip to Aretuza, but it looks like Volume 2 is where things really start to get going.
We also get a rather ominous image of Geralt getting beaten bloody and sinking to the bottom of the lake, which hopefully isn’t where we leave the witcher this season. Ciri even encounters a unicorn in the desert, and Yennefer appears to seek comfort in Jaskier for reasons unknown. Book readers will spot plenty of familiar visuals, even if the exact details are a little different.
Volume 2 will see Cavill’s final batch of episodes as Geralt of Rivia before he departs the show for good. Liam Hemsworth has been announced to step in as the titular witcher, but it looks like the transition between both actors might become an actual plot point for the show. The creative team of the Netflix series has teased that the transition from Cavill to Hemsworth will be, “very lore accurate,” using ideas that are, “very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five.”
The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2 drops on Netflix on July 27, 2023.