The executive producers of Netflix's The Witcher have teased a "meta" transition to Liam Hemsworth's Geralt after Henry Cavill left the show after Season 3.
Speaking to Yahoo News, Steve Gaub and Tomek Baginski said the transition will be "flawless" and pull on deep meta ideas from the original book series from Andrzej Sapkowski.
The following paragraphs feature spoilers from The Witcher book series and speculation around what Season 4 (and beyond) of the Netflix show could entail.
Book five, The Lady of the Lake, is referenced in particular, and the main meta idea here is, essentially, a multiverse. It's not guaranteed this is what the executive producers are talking about, but this is the only real idea that could be considered "meta", and would also give somewhat of an explanation as to why Geralt has a new face in Season 4.
"We have a very, very good plan to introduce our new Geralt and our new vision for Geralt with Liam," said Baginski. "Not going deeply into those ideas because this will be a huge spoiler, it's also very, very close to the meta ideas which are deeply embedded in the books, especially in book five.
"It's very lore accurate. It's very close to what was set out in the books and I think this change will be quite flawless. But at the same time it will be a new Geralt, it will be a new face for this character and I think it will also be very, very exciting to see."
The Lady of the Lake sees Ciri gain (almost) full control of her powers and become closer to what fans of The Witcher 3 will be familiar with. Able to jump through time and space, she visits hundreds, if not thousands of planets, and while the book was released in 1999 and before the current trend of multiverses, it could essentially be seen as such.
These worlds weren't said to include the same people in different realities, but did include ones similar to the familiar Continent of the Witcher, ones completely different, and even our own Earth, so this "meta" spin on Geralt's recast could see Ciri jump to a world that's completely the same outside of Geralt's face.
The other main option, also from The Lady of the Lake (and big spoilers are coming), is killing Geralt off a few seasons early and bringing him back with a different look. The Witcher book saga ends here, with Ciri basically taking Geralt to a magical limbo between life and death, but it might be a little too early to use this plot point in the show.
Netflix has taken a lot of liberties with the source material though, and while fan reaction to these changes has gone both ways, many believe this resulted in Cavill's departure in the first place. Former producer Beau DeMayo even said some writers "actively disliked" and mocked Sapkowski’s books.
The story continues in Season 3, set to be split into two parts, with episodes one to five premiering later this month on June 29 and episodes six to eight coming later on July 27.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/the-witcher-producers-tease-meta-transition-to-liam-hemsworths-geralt