Fans of The witcher knew going into Season 3 that it would be Henry Cavill’s last. But until the final episodes dropped on Friday, no one was quite sure What his departure would look like. Would it be recognized on the show with some facial magic? Would Liam Hemsworth appear as Geralt in Season 3?
In the end, the scene was a much calmer ending – and completely true to Geralt’s character: he refuses to stay in Brokilon Forest to fully recover after his fight with Vilgefortz, instead heading off with Jaskier to find Ciri. Along the way, he gets into a fight he doesn’t need to have with Nilfgaardian troops to help some people he doesn’t know. Then he walks away and continues his search.
It’s a low-key affair, but for director Bola Ogun it naturally stemmed from where Geralt was after the Thanedd Coup. By the time they were filming it, Ogun and crew knew it would be Cavill’s last scene as Geralt. “The way it was written and the way they designed it — because so much is already changing, so much is going to happen in the season, it almost felt like it was a beautiful chapter that ended on its own,” she says.
As Ogun puts it, each episode is in its own way intimidating to film — like shooting in Morocco in July for Ciri’s journey across the desert in Episode 7 — but for Episode 8, she knew it was about making sure she got Cavill right. sent off. . Despite all the betrayal and danger lurking, the atmosphere of Geralt’s last bit in the episode is calm, almost dreamy.
“I think the style of the last block, you see, is a little bit different. It’s a bit more emotional, and that’s on purpose,” says Ogun. “When it came to that episode, it was very much trying to lean into the political espionage(s) of Brokilon Forest’s magical themes, and see more of it than we’ve seen in the past, in a different way. So I rely very much on the sense of magic, the sense of something like that changing.
“Basically it was just trying to create a continuation, but make it feeling otherwise, make it feel like it was a long, sweet goodbye.”
While Geralt and Roach will ride again, Ogun says this is definitely the end of an era. “We’re definitely going to miss him because he’s a great Geralt. And I know Liam will step into those shoes just fine and bring the same seriousness as him,” says Ogun. he does! It’s a great fight. It’s a great last hurray.”