'The Witcher' Fans Slam Henry Cavill Ad as 'Disrespectful'

The Witcher fans do not like the way Netflix is marketing the change from Henry Cavill to Liam Hemsworth. The streamer announced last year that after Season 3, Cavill would leave the show and would be recast as Hemsworth starting in Season 4 – a change that has consumed the fandom despite being years away. Now, fans are saying that ads emphasizing Cavill's swan song are a bad look for the show overall.

The new ad campaign that has fans upset features the catchphrase "YEs, he's still Geralt in Season 3," sandwiched between the logos for Netflix and The Witcher. This weekend, the official Netflix Twitter account posted photos where this slogan was projected onto buildings around the world at the scale of billboard, and apparently even onto a mountainside in one case. Fans thought that this kind of flippant meta-commentary was a disservice to Cavill's performance and could undercut Hemsworth's debut, while many also felt that it implied some desperation from the streamer.

Cavill has been synonymous with The Witcher because he was already a huge fan of the franchise before the show began, having played the video games and read the books. He did not give a reason for his departure but many fans have speculated that he had creative clashes with the writers and producers over places where the show portrayed events or characters differently from the books. This has never been confirmed and has been disputed in many ways, especially since it coincided with rapid developments in Cavill's career in other franchises.

Nonetheless, many commenters have said that they will be ignoring Netflix's Witcher franchise after Cavill departs, and clearly the streamer has taken that to heart. Season 3, Volume 1 premiered last week on Netflix, and Volume 2 premieres on Thursday, July 27. Here's a look at what fans are saying about this marketing strategy.