Netflix’s “The Witcher”: Henry Cavill Cast as Geralt, Minority Sought for Ciri

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Variety learned this week that Man of Steel and Mission Impossible: Fallout actor Henry Cavill will star as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s upcoming eight-episode fantasy series, “The Witcher.” Casting appears to be well underway for other staples such as Yennefer and Ciri: according to a UK casting site, producers are searching for “a 16 or 15 year old BAME (black, Asian, and minority ethnic) girl who can play down to 13/14” to play the latter.

Based on the best-selling fantasy series, “The Witcher” follows Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), a solitary monster hunter, as he struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. But when destiny hurtles him toward a powerful sorceress, and a young princess with a dangerous secret, the three must learn to navigate the increasingly volatile Continent together.
 
Never played the game, heard if you pirate it, they changed the sex scene to where you have sex with a ugly old hag instead of a young woman.
Wonder if you pirate the show they do the same!? (and yes I know it's not possible....)
 
I was much more interested when Mads Mikkelsen was rumored. I can deal with Henry Cavill although I can't picture him with long hair but why the need to change Ciri ? I hope those same people would be ok if we did a Malcom X movie with Malcom X being played by Billy Bob Thornton.
 
Welp won't be paying to watch that movie. Could they not find someone who even remotely looked like Geralt? Slap a wig on Sean Bean and call it a day.

Simmonz said:
I was much more interested when Mads Mikkelsen was rumored. I can deal with Henry Cavill although I can't picture him with long hair but why the need to change Ciri ? I hope those same people would be ok if we did a Malcom X movie with Malcom X being played by Billy Bob Thornton.
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I'd be OK with Mads. LOL @ the Billy Bob - Malcom X movie...that would be.... hilariously wrong.
 
ahh, here comes the expected SJW, PC casting.

we are now at times when people were genuinely relieved that Geralt was not 'BAME' ( obligatory suggestion of Idris Elba inserted here ).

Huh, at least we had a couple of days of hope of the tv honchos following on the games . oh well..
 
Simmonz said:
I was much more interested when Mads Mikkelsen was rumored. I can deal with Henry Cavill although I can't picture him with long hair but why the need to change Ciri ? I hope those same people would be ok if we did a Malcom X movie with Malcom X being played by Billy Bob Thornton.
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Pointing out that Malcolm X was a real person wouldn't help you spot the trouble with that analogy, would it?

Anywho, Cavil seems like a bad choice for the lead.
 
Aireoth said:
This isn't progress, it's treating minorities with kid gloves because of some belief they cannot make it without direct intervention. It's just nanny states 101.
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its not that they can't ( ref: Power, The Wire, and plenty of other examples if someone was to look from 90s to now).

It's politics to increase the % to activism levels. (but not the Native Indians. No one cares about them still)
Somehow doing these sort of casting choices let them get kudos within the industry top-players, perhaps netting them the spots for a next juicy project or chance to start their own. Considering Hollywood, people would do pretty much anything to get that chance.

(side note: the top ranks of Hollywood incidentally seem to swinging further left and left. --- perhaps someone can recommend if there's a book from an insider in Hollywood about this )
 
Eating popcorn. Reminding myself of the people who swore Heath Ledger as the Joker was equivalent of the terrorist winning.

Or that Gal Gadot was to skinny to be wonder woman.

Or that Hugh Jackman was too tall to be wolverine, and he would never last more than a few movies.

Or that the last jedi is good.


While as a minority, it does bother me to see major liberties like this, cause I'm comfortable with white people and enjoy shows about white people. But for some reason, with how fantasy the Witcher is...it doesn't bother me if there is some slight variance. The "Only Slavic looking people for this slavic tale" people really remind me of how stereotypical white south country america sounds. I really don't think Henry Cavill is a bad call. You can always make very beautiful (which he is) into the roughness that Geralt needs.
 
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I don';t know I think he is a good pick for the role. He is a huge geralt fan, had read all the witcher books, and IMO I do not think he is a bad actor. They could done a hell of a lot worse.

This has me more interested in the TV show now!
 
bugleyman said:
Pointing out that Malcolm X was a real person wouldn't help you spot the trouble with that analogy, would it?

Anywho, Cavil seems like a bad choice for the lead.
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it's about race changing clearly definable and popular characters.

it's like saying Black Panther and Wakanda should be White and set in Eastern Europe.Inconceivable and yet for Witcher 3 it is the opposite?
 
theBrownLlama said:
it's about race changing clearly definable and popular characters.
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And again, Malcolm X isn't a character, so that was a bad analogy, full stop. The validity of the argument (or lack thereof) is entirely beside the point. But since most people are driven by emotion, not logic...
theBrownLlama said:
it's like saying Black Panther and Wakanda should be White and set in Eastern Europe.Inconceivable and yet for Witcher 3 it is the opposite?
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Black Panther's identify is inextricably tied to his race (as are the identities of most of our culture's minority character's, which is in itself telling) in a way that a supporting character in a video game's probably isn't. Though not having played the Witcher 3, I'm not familiar with this particular supporting character, so perhaps I'm mistaken in this case? If not, it not really the same thing.
 
trentchau said:
Eating popcorn. Reminding myself of the people who swore Heath Ledger as the Joker was equivalent of the terrorist winning.

Or that Gal Gadot was to skinny to be wonder woman.

Or that Hugh Jackman was too tall to be wolverine, and he would never last more than a few movies.

Or that the last jedi is good.
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Health Ledger's Joker indeed was the Terrorist winning. The movies showed what a dumb wuss Batman was, and how he got plenty of people killed for his ideals. But works as a very dark movie where everyone in a costume is insane in a way or another.

Gal Gadot is indeed unlike the comics but studio exes and journalists are scared of women with shape and bosoms. They will be eviscerated if they wrote something like that. Like how they would be eviscerated if they wrote that this BAME casting is wrong.

Filming technique completely hid Hugh Jackman's height. Like Tom Cruise's. Those that complain height is a problem do not read enough about movie making.

Last Jedi = since when was the new trilogy any good?
 
bugleyman said:
And again, Malcolm X isn't a character, so that was a bad analogy, full stop. The validity of the argument (or lack thereof) is entirely beside the point. But since most people are driven by emotion, not logic



Black Panther's identify is inextricably tied to his race in a way that a supporting character in a video game's probably isn't. So no, that really isn't the same.
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yes it is. Personalities are tied intrinsically to race and culture. SJW and PC journalist used this argument when black characters were made to act what they consider as ignorant against their heritage. (no, you can't use it both ways)

same thing as a Jewish character.

if not Black Panther, then Superman as a BAME then.

or how about, Roland from Dark Tower as a BAME....oh right, that was fucked up.

or take any of your beloved gaming character and do a race change . How would that make you feel?
 
theBrownLlama said:
yes it is. Personalities are tied intrinsically to race and culture. SJW and PC journalist used this argument when black characters were made to act what they consider as ignorant against their heritage. (no, you can't use it both ways)

same thing as a Jewish character.

if not Black Panther, then Superman as a BAME then.

or how about, Roland from Dark Tower as a BAME....oh right, that was fucked up.

or take any of your beloved gaming character and do a race change . How would that make you feel?
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I guess the rock as sarge in doom made the movie even worse! Seriously some people make a big deal out of nothing
 
Really, can't we just use actors that have a Polish background as the writer Sapkowski obviously modeled the characters and setting from a more medievil version of Poland and carry alot of the north Eastern European and ukranian mythos, I am not a fan of whitewash casting, but the reverse is also just as distasteful. I had such high hopes for this as I loved the books and latter playing the games but it appears this may be a dumpster fire of a production, all they had to do was redo the Polish Hexer series with more stories and better cgi, while making the story make more sense. I guess it's to hard not to try to actually be politically correct and instead cave in to SJWs in the face of recent political garbage. It's ok though that there wasn't 1 white Caucasian in Harlem in Luke Cage, but that makes sense, so why would they potentially introduce races that didn't exist in the Witcher.

*edited for grammar....GD phone autotype never works right.
 
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theBrownLlama said:
yes it is. Personalities are tied intrinsically to race and culture. SJW and PC journalist used this argument when black characters were made to act what they consider as ignorant against their heritage. (no, you can't use it both ways)

same thing as a Jewish character.

if not Black Panther, then Superman as a BAME then.

or how about, Roland from Dark Tower as a BAME....oh right, that was fucked up.
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You're ignoring the defaults-to-white nature of our pop culture.
 
This doesn't bug me, I mean yes Ciri and Triss are pretty iconic in the gaming and cosplay world, but as long as it doesn't look forced I'm generally cool with alternative casting. The issue is when a character casting comes of looking like they just filled a roll for diversity rather than actual talent.
 
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bugleyman said:
You're ignoring the defaults-to-white nature of our pop culture.
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with context of thread in mind, i can think of the the mess over race conversion over Death Note, Dark Tower, Hellboy, Ghost in the Shell ( ok, not so clear in that cause she;s not exactly modeled as jap in the anime as well) , and now this

and we get no where talking about things in broad views of needing more diversity in media in this matter. Next thing you would know, someone would suggest needing more white rappers and footballers with a serious face.
 
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It doesn't bother me at all and I think it will work well for the show. I think Henry Cavill is a good choice for Geralt IMO. I think he will do the character justice because he likes the games and books. That to me is a very important thing.

theBrownLlama said:
if not Black Panther, then Superman as a BAME then.

or take any of your beloved gaming character and do a race change . How would that make you feel?
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I would be fine with most race related changes depending on the character background. Yes Superman was played by an Asian guy (Lois & Clark TV series Dean Cain is Asian) and I thought it worked better because superman wasn't being played by the usual white guy in a cape. Superman is an alien who only is suppose to look like an earthling and could blend in. So what race he resembles here on earth is really irrelevant. I probably wouldn't feel the same if they did a BAME replacement for say Bruce Wayne, Barry Allen, Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers due to their established origins being on earth, but aliens and those born in fantasy worlds, I have no issue as long as the actor they hire plays them properly.

As far as the source material goes, it takes place in a fictional world so they can cast or make whatever character changes they want in regards to race. Sure the author modeled his world after North Eastern Europe but Ciri's background is a descendant if Elves since her lineage bred with elves and is the reason she has Elder Blood that gives her her powers, so I think a BAME casting isn't a bad choice for her character. Having Ciri stand out like that, I think will help give her that "mysterious power" kind of look.
 
bugleyman said:
Pointing out that Malcolm X was a real person wouldn't help you spot the trouble with that analogy, would it?

Anywho, Cavil seems like a bad choice for the lead.
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Remove the analogy and look at it this way. Whitewashing is bad, the opposite is also bad. Fiction and non-fiction.

Overall I disagree with changing ethnicity or gender just for the sake of it, which this inarguably is otherwise they’d look for any young actress and choose the best. At the same time I really doubt that Ciris skin is going to affect the shows quality in any way.

So basically I just can’t care beyond it being more unnecessary changes in the face of inclusion. Meh
 
Race/sex changing characters is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Why even bother attaching the Witcher name to it? Oh, well, another show on the ignore list. I will just assume they are going to screw it up at this point. No sense bothering any further with it. I suppose that is really the only way I can punish them. By ignoring their work,
 
Nolan7689 said:
Remove the analogy and look at it this way. Whitewashing is bad, the opposite is also bad. Fiction and non-fiction.

Overall I disagree with changing ethnicity or gender just for the sake of it, which this inarguably is otherwise they’d look for any young actress and choose the best. At the same time I really doubt that Ciris skin is going to affect the shows quality in any way.

So basically I just can’t care beyond it being more unnecessary changes in the face of inclusion. Meh
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Reasonable, but I believe you're also missing the "white-by-default" nature of our popular culture. If fiction reflected reality, then inclusion-based casting would be wrong (but also unnecessary). Minorities don't want special treatment, they want equal treatment. I can't see how that's unreasonable.
 
On one hand, I supremely hate forced diversity. On the other, all video games adapted into movies are shit anyhow, so I really can't be bothered to give too much of a damn. It isn't like I was going to watch it either way.
 
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