CD Projekt REDMy first exposure to Geralt of Rivia was in CD Projekt RED’s excellent The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. When I think of the White Wolf, I’ll probably always think of this grizzled, bearded take on the character, voiced by the excellent Doug Cockle.
That’s not to say I won’t be giving Henry Cavill a chance when he stars in the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher, of course. I’m aware that the video games did their own thing, and the new show is taking its cues from the original novels on which the games are based. I’m happy to see a different take on the character, but the CDPR version will always hold a special place in my heart.
Adan4444For that reason, I’m deeply confused by the new mod for The Witcher 3 that replaces video game Geralt with Henry Cavill’s version of the character. It just feels.. wrong. Adan4444 based the mod on screenshots and early footage of the show, and the result is essentially a generic handsome man with long white hair. It gets even weirder when he speaks and Cockle’s voice comes out.
The modder wrote:
This mod page will be a base for different Henry Cavill variations in future. With scars, dirt, brown hair with blue eyes etc, but first of all, now I’m presenting a look closer to Geralt in Netflix show.
Cockle himself actually caught wind of this mod, and jokingly told IGN he’s furious that Cavill has invaded his domain in such a flagrant and disrespectful manner. “How dare they mod out my perfectly facial captured image of Game Geralt”, he said, before admitting that the mod did make him “giggle a bit.”
As the Netflix show draws closer to release (there’s no set date yet, but late 2019 seems to be the consensus) it recently came to light that young actor Tristan Ruggeri has been cast in the show’s series finale as “Young Geralt”, implying we’ll be getting an extended look at the character’s troubled childhood.
Seriously, if you’re not that versed in Witcher lore, look up the Trial of the Grasses. It’s truly nasty stuff.
NetflixIt remains to be seen whether or not another modder will add Ruggeri’s young Geralt into The Witcher 3 at some point, but that would greatly change the vibe of the game in a number of deeply disturbing ways. Perhaps best not then, actually.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.