The Witcher star Joey Batey gives update on Liam Hemsworth's version of Geralt

It was announced last month that Liam Hemsworth would be replacing Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s smash hit The Witcher for season four.

And now, Cavill’s co-star Joey Batey (who plays fan favourite Jaskier) has revealed Hemsworth has already been going to some pretty impressive lengths when it comes to character prep.

Batey also shared that he’s been in contact with Cavill throughout the process, hailing the Superman actor as a ‘very close friend’.

Speaking to Culture Crave this month, Batey was asked whether he’d spoken to Cavill about his departure from the role, or Hemsworth about his stepping into Geralt’s boots.

Batey said: “I’ve spoken to both of them, yeah. I spoke to Henry last week. We text a fair bit, he’s a good friend. I sent him a message just saying how much everyone in the show would miss him.”

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Batey added: “Myself, more so than most - because Henry and I are very good pals and we’ve spent the past four years carving out these stories.

“But at exactly the same time I reached out to Liam and said welcome. This is unbelievable, the strength in him and the bravery to come and join a show like this halfway through is unbelievable.”

The actor went on: “And I just hope everyone knows the commitment he’s already showing to these incredibly big boots he has to fill. He’s diving headfirst into this and is taking it so seriously with his research and training and things like that.

“We’ll miss Henry an awful lot, but Liam’s going to bring something new and fresh and different to it.”

Shortly after it was announced Cavill was being replaced, fans launched a petition demanding he return to the series and the writers be fired.

Many began to speculate that Cavill, an avid fan of the book series, clashed with the writers, who wanted to stray away from the original source material.

A Change.org petition was launched, acting as an open letter calls for the 39-year-old to return to The Witcher series and the signatories also want the writers terminated.

It read: “Henry isn’t leaving The Witcher because of Superman, Netflix executives have once again made a grave decision against delivering for their fans.

“The reason why The Witcher is such a popular show is the fans’ love of the source material of books and games, that are hated by and have actively been mocked by the writers and showrunner.

“Henry Cavill is one of those big fans, he knows all of it inside out and wanted to stay true to Sapkowski’s world, which is why Netflix wants to replace him.”