The Witcher star Henry Cavill swung by Jimmy Kimmel recently to talk about how he became a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs, being shamed into doing his own stunts by Tom Cruise, and taking part in Thanksgiving despite being British. He also spent a bit of time talking about The Witcher series on Netflix, and showed off a brief clip of sword-swinging action and an appearance by a very strange-looking partner.
The Witcher clip begins at 6:20 if you want to get straight to the goods, and yes, it's very short. I can't shake the feeling that it's not entirely convincing, either. Maybe I'm still locked into the raw brutality of the Hound going out for a nice chicken dinner, but this brawl hits me as a little too choreographed and bloodless. Not that it's possible to make any sort of judgment based on such a short clip, but the world of The Witcher is a rough and ugly one, and I really hope that carries over in full force to the Netflix series, even in the nice neighborhoods.
(Side note: Who's that gopher-faced guy?)
The Witcher series on Netflix is based on Andrzej Sapkowski's books, but Cavill said during the interview bit that he actually became a Geralt fan through the videogames.
"I played the games—they released a game called Witcher 3 about five years ago now. Played that game to death," he explained. "Then I heard it was coming out—I met the showrunner, and that's when I learned there were books. Read the books and realized that I was missing out on a whole world of the stuff. Because I'd been into the fantasy genre since I was a kid—since before I could read, my dad was reading me fantasy books."
Cavill also recently paid tribute to the work of Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle, saying that the character's voice in The Witcher 3 served as an inspiration for his take on the character. I think that really comes through in The Witcher trailer Netflix released in October: Cavill doesn't say much, but when he does speak his vocal intonations are very similar to Cockle's.
(Speaking of vocal intonations, I think this is the first time I've heard Cavill speaking in his native accent. I had no idea he was English.)
The Witcher debuts on Netflix on December 20. That's still more than two weeks away, but it's already been renewed for a second season.
