The Witcher showrunner saw 207 other actors before casting Henry Cavill

Henry Cavill is no stranger to playing characters with a big following. After all he’s been Superman, Napoleon Solo and soon he’ll be Sherlock Holmes too.

So when another big role – Geralt of Rivia in the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher fantasy novels – was being cast, you would have thought Cavill would have been top of the list. But an interview at Comic-Con with the drama’s showrunner this weekend revealed otherwise.

Showrunner Lauren S Hissrich, explained, “Henry is a huge fan... I met him at the very beginning of the process. He said, “I would love to play this character.” I said, “Henry, you’re amazing, but we haven’t even started thinking about casting yet.” Then I met 207 other possible Geralts.”

At that point the producer of Daredevil and The Umbrella Academy, knew she needed to go back to the beginning.

“I came back to Henry at the end.” She revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Adding, “Once I started writing I couldn’t get Henry’s voice out of my head for the character. He embodies Geralt in a way that I don’t think anybody else could.”

When Cavill finally said yes to the role, Hissrich took to Twitter the officially announce the news, saying, “He was my first meeting. I didn’t have writers or scripts yet – I’ve never forgotten the passion he brought. He IS Geralt. He always has been. I’m so thrilled to welcome HENRY CAVILL to the #Witcher family.”

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The Witcher stories are set in a world of magic and monsters, elves and humans. They have a massive following and have already been developed into a series of computer games. Netflix has developed a new small-screen version, which many dubbing it the next Game of Thrones.