Netflix Angers Henry Cavill Fans With This Subtle ‘The Witcher’ Change

Liam Hemsworth may have officially taken over as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher, but Netflix just made another quiet change that has Henry Cavill fans fuming all over again. Subscribers noticed this week that the platform’s The Witcher profile icon, once featuring Cavill’s stoic — or boring, depending on your point of view — take on the monster hunter has been deleted entirely and replaced with a new set of images using Hemsworth’s version. The update, which quietly rolled out alongside other refreshed Netflix icons, instantly reignited backlash online.

One user on X called Netflix “cowards” for the stealthy swap, while others accused the streamer of “ragebaiting” by erasing Cavill’s likeness from the show’s digital branding. “They should’ve just swapped him out and seen how long it took people to notice,” one Redditor joked, while another pointed out that Yennefer’s image was also removed, suggesting a full visual overhaul. In the meantime, some users reported encountering “404” errors when logging in with the now-deleted Cavill avatar.

Though the update might sound trivial, fans see it as symbolic of a larger issue — the steady erosion of what made The Witcher’s early years beloved. Cavill, who starred in the first three seasons, was widely credited with grounding the fantasy series through his understanding of Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels and his passion for the role.

When the actor announced his exit in 2022, citing creative differences, fans were already divided. That division has only deepened since Hemsworth’s debut in Season 4 — which currently holds a dismal 19% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. “It’s like they’re pretending the good seasons never happened,” one user commented.

Is ‘The Witcher’ Season 4 Any Good?

Well, fans may not think so, but Collider’s Carly Lane hailed Hemsworth’s take on the character and praised the show for breathing new life into the franchise ahead of its fifth and final season:

Despite the dismal note that The Witcher Season 4 leaves off on, what leads up to that fateful sequence is anything but. Even though Hemsworth has stepped into a role that wasn’t originally his, he manages to make Geralt his own over the course of the season’s eight episodes. That said, Season 4 is further proof that The Witcher has increasingly become about more than just one character. Chalotra’s Yennefer has more than earned a spot on the list of all-time fantasy heroines, and Allan has a commanding grasp on Ciri ahead of what’s about to be her character’s most devastating gauntlet yet. All eyes might be on Hemsworth in anticipation of his debut, but everyone should be watching this action-packed fantasy epic for far more than just Geralt of Rivia now.

The Witcher is streaming now on Netflix.

Release Date

December 20, 2019

Network

Netflix

Directors

Stephen Surjik, Charlotte Brändström, Edward Bazalgette, Loni Peristere, Louise Hooper, Bola Ogun, Alex Garcia Lopez, Gandja Monteiro, Sarah O’Gorman

Writers

Haily Hall, Clare Higgins, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Jenny Klein, Tania Lotia

Franchise(s)

The Witcher

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