Did bad writing drive Henry Cavill away from ‘The Witcher?’ And if so, who do we fire?

by Therese Odell, posted in watch this

Who among us can’t relate:

@truenorthcanecorsoinc

♬ original sound – Italian_cane_corso

Here’s A BUNCH OF TV News

HAVE YOU VOTED YET? WELL?

Big changes are headed to The CW. The network, which was recently purchased  by Nexstar, has just laid off 30-40 staffers. The plan is to move to unscripted shows and more news, and most of the teen-centered programming has already been canceled.

One of the big questions about the transition to this new ownership has been about the future of two freshman series, The Winchesters and Walker: Independence, and as of right now, it’s not looking great. The CW has passed on ordering more episodes for season one for either show beyond the already committed 13 episodes. No decision about a second season for either show has been made. (But I wouldn’t be hopeful.)

And as for the few CW series that haven’t been outright canceled, like All American, reportedly the new management is trying to negotiate a much lower licensing fee per episode — about $1 million per episode when the previous deal had been around $2 million an episode. The studios are not impressed. Stay tuned.

It might not just be about Superman: The Witcher fans have been digging into old stories and seem to think Henry Cavill is leaving the series at least in part because he doesn’t like the writing and the way the show is developing Geralt. And they have pretty convincing receipts:

One of the former writers on The Witcher outed other writers as being dismissive of the source material — source material that Cavill was reportedly a  big fan of — in a recent interview with IGN.

“I’ve been on show – namely Witcher – where some of the writers were not or actively disliked the books and games (even actively mocking the source material),” DeMayo explained. “It’s a recipe for disaster and bad morale. Fandom as a litmus test checks egos, and makes all the long nights worth it. You have to respect the work before you’re allowed to add to its legacy.”

In this piece from The Hollywood Reporter last year, it’s revealed that Cavill loved The Witcher‘s original material and lobbied hard for the role, even being willing to audition for it despite being a movie star:

“I pursued, pursued, pursued,” Cavill says of the role. “A couple months after they had gone through their casting process, my agent called and said, ‘They’ve asked you do an audition — you don’t have to do this.’ I’m like, ‘I’ll do it.’ They said, ‘Really? Are you sure?’ I said, ‘Of course. It’s The Witcher.’”

The piece also revealed that he was growing frustrated that the material was not hewing as closely to the source material as he liked, and that he wanted Geralt to be given more dialogue and emotional depth instead of just walking around grunting all the time:

After the success of season one (which included spawning several spinoffs in development), Cavill sent Hissrich a flurry of emails with ideas for how to take the second season to the next level. “The lockdown was an opportunity to look at everything — let’s review that,” Cavill says. “How about we tweak it this way? How about we adapt that?”

In particular, Cavill wanted Geralt to open up more to the audience. “A lot of the notes he was sending to me were about Geralt’s dialogue — could he, first of all, say more,” Hissrich says. “Everybody came out of season one laughing and loving Geralt’s fuming. But Henry was saying that when you read the books you spend a lot of time in Geralt’s head. So how can we put that on the page? Meanwhile, I wanted to tell the story of him becoming a father figure to Ciri. So those two things coalesced wonderfully. He opens up to get Ciri to trust him, by speaking his mind and his heart more.”

So, yeah. It sounds like Cavill loved the original material and was thrilled to be a part of the project, but eventually grew frustrated with the writers’ room’s lack of respect for the source material and used the Superman role as his way out.

Fans have started a Change.org petition to fire the writers and keep Cavill but methinks it’s too little, too late.

Christina Applegate — who is a fucking badass who has had her share of health battles — was determined to finish filming Dead to Me, even though she was diagnosed with M.S. in the middle of the upcoming third season. (See below for the trailer.)

While the new owners of the house that inspired The Watcher haven’t received any letters, they have made nearly 60 calls to the cops since buying the house in 2019, and for some very spooooOoooooOky reasons.

Ryan Murphy isn’t happy that Netflix removed the LGBTQ tag on Dahmer.

The Sopranos nearly wasn’t called “The Sopranos” because HBO executives thought it sounded like a sitcom about opera singers.

Speaking of The Sopranos, we have a Sopranos director, Tim Van Patten, to thank for saving the famously absolute shit pilot episode of Game of Thrones. He was brought in to redo the episode, and shoot the next, and the rest is history.

According to Matt Weiner, creator of Mad Men, HBO didn’t even look at his pitch for the show, even after David Chase urged them to do so. And honestly, this is the only thing that makes sense, because Mad Men was ready-made for HBO.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer turned 25 this week, and here’s an extremely long Pajiba piece about it, if you’re so inclined.

According to Darren Star, ABC REALLY wanted Sex and the City and it’s like, “Um, ma’am? Excuse me? What do you even think you are going to do with that? YOU ARE OWNED BY DISNEY, MA’AM.”

If y’all aren’t guilt-watching Love is Blind right now, I don’t know what to tell you. The amazingly terrible soundtrack alone is worth every cringey moment.

Love is most likely dead.

Fox News is mad at college kids for petting cats now.

Also, Laura Ingraham said with a straight face that no GOP leader has ever advocated or supported political violence.

Vote like common decency depends on it. Because it does.

Cancellations

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendars

  • Dead to Me returns on Netflix on November 17.
  • A Christmas Story Christmas will premiere on HBO Max on November 17.
  • His Dark Materials returns on HBO on December 5.
  • Ziwe returns on Showtime on November 20.
  • Spirited will debut on Apple TV+ on November 18.
  • Mayor of Kingstown will return on Paramount+ on January 15.
  • Firefly Lane returns on Netflix on December 2.
  • Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin will debut on Peacock on November 23.
  • Irreverent will debut on Peacock on November 30.
  • Riches returns on Prime Video on December 2.
  • Wildcat will premiere on Prime Video on November 9.
  • The Great British Baking Show: Holidays will return on November 18.
  • Reframed will return on TCM on November 5.
  • Troll will debut on Netflix on December 1.
  • Interrupting Chicken premieres on Apple TV+ on November 18.

R.I.P.

Julie Powell, Food writer known for Julie & Julia

Gael Greene, “The Dorothy Parker of restaurant critics”

WATCH THIS

World Series Game 5 4: Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this. Not only has it come to this, but it’s much much worse than all that. Y’ALL BETTER SHOW UP TONIGHT, ASTROS. 6 p.m., Fox

Killer Sally: The story of Sally McNeil, a bodybuilder who murdered her husband and claimed he had been abusive towards her. But had he? Premiere. Netflix

Late Night:

  • Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: George Lopez, Cole Hauser, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Joey Bada$$ with Men I Trust
  • Late Night with Seth Meyers: Daniel Radcliffe, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Kerry Condon, Kurt Vile, and the Violators, Dena Tauriello
  • The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Jennifer Lawrence, Ernest Moniz
  • The Late Late Show with James Corden: Alicia Vikander, Chris O’Dowd, Tommy McLain
  • Jimmy Kimmel Live: Yvonne Strahovski, Viagra Boys
  • The Daily Show: Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock
  • Watch What Happens Live: Arden Myrin, Meredith Marks

WEDS. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Conners
(new)		 The Goldbergs
(new)		 Abbott Elementary
(new)		 Home Economics
(new)		 Big Sky
(new)
CBS Survivor
(new)		 The Real Love Boat
(new)		 The Amazing Race
(new)
CW Stargirl
(new)		 Kung Fu
(new)		 Local
FOX World Series: MAYBE.
(live)		 News/Local
NBC Chicago Med
(new)		 Chicago Fire
(new)		 Chicago P.D.
(new)

Leave a Reply