New data reveals that The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2, where Henry Cavill is saying goodbye to the franchise and his role, took an unexpected viewership dip.
The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2, containing Cavill's final three episodes in the titular role, was released on July 27, and the audience is not giving it as much of a watch as previously expected. Samba TV, a data analytics platform, posted a report regarding the show's decreased popularity among viewers on X (fka Twitter).
The first episode of The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2 was only watched by 597,000 US households over the season's first four days on Netflix (the data is relevant as of July 31). This signifies a 33% decrease in viewership from Season 3 Volume 1, which was seen by 1.1 million US households over the course of the first six days after the premiere, with 885,000 viewers tuning in within the first four days. To put these numbers in perspective, The Witcher's ill-received prequel, last year's The Witcher: Blood Origin managed to gather twice as many people in front of their screens in 2022 -- 1.3 million US households watched the series across the first eight days.
Henry Cavill's Last Witcher Adventure
Cavill has decided to exit Netflix's hit fantasy drama series after three seasons, declining to reprise his role as Geralt of Rivia in the upcoming Season 4. The actor, who is a longtime fan of Andrzej Sapkowski's original books, has reportedly had creative differences with The Wicher's showrunner and writers over the fact that the show has been straying too far from the book canon, especially in regard to his own character's depiction in the live-action adaptation.
The Witcher star's disagreement with the executives on the creative direction that the show is taking has led to him leaving the series. Starting from Season 4, The Hunger Games actor Liam Hemsworth is set to take over the role of Geralt. Executive producer Tomek Baginski already teased the fans about how "awesome" the star looks in his Geralt makeup. He assured that the actor will bring a completely new energy to the character, adding, "[Hemsworth] will be given space, he will be given his voice. He has to discover this character for himself. And, for me, it is crazily exciting. Especially in the world of the [Witcher] books, which kind of allow this unsureness. There are so many angles on so many stories which happen in the books. So it will be a great discovery to do it again."
The Witcher Season 3 Volume 2, starring Henry Cavill in the titular role for the very last time, is now available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Samba TV