Lap it up: Henry Cavill's dog is in The Witcher 3 now

(Image credit: Andreas Rentz (Getty Images))

Henry Cavill just can't help himself at the moment: the man is a nexus of news. That is largely, to be fair, because it looks like DC couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery: the actor announced in October he'd be leaving the Witcher show after season three, and be back in the role of Superman. Then this week it was announced Cavill's Superman would not, in fact, return.

Luckily, being the most handsome and famous nerd in the world has certain compensations. Cavill has been praised in the past by those who've worked on the Witcher series, whether games or show, for how seriously he took the world and character. CDPR took the opportunity with the recent major update to the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to add various nods to the show, including the Cavill-Geralt armour, and has also added quite a sweet personal touch for the actor.

Henry Cavill has a dog: and it's called Kal, as in Kal-El, as in Superman. No, I don't know why he plumped for that over Krypto. Kal is an American Akita breed and apparently something of a fixture around the actor, meaning there are lots of photographs of Kal, and now that the dog has found its way into The Witcher 3 there will probably be even more screenshots.

The tribute was first spotted by fan xLetalis in the Devil's Pit area of the game, with the dog turning up to mooch around "after you get one of the 'good' endings in the new quest" (thanks Eurogamer). The nod was confirmed by CDPR lead quest designer Philip Weber: "With the sad news about Henry Cavill's Superman role today," said Weber, "it's nice that we got a little opportunity to show our appreciation for the great passion and enthusiasm Henry showed for The Witcher".

So it's not all bad for old Cavill. And while the Superman news may have been a bit of a bummer, he does appear somewhat closer to his true dream role. Cavill "is attached to star and executive produce" a new Warhammer 40K series, with Amazon apparently in final talks to secure the rights. So even in the darkest of times, someone's ready to throw him a bone.

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Henry Cavill's dog in the Witcher 3. — (Image credit: CDPR)

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."