Why Netflix Recast Geralt's Mentor Vesemir For The Witcher Season 4

Season 4 of "The Witcher" has a handful of new faces for fans to get to know, with two of them portraying characters previously played by other actors. In addition to new characters like Laurence Fishburne's altruistic vampire Regis, there are also new actors for both Geralt of Rivia and his mentor Vesemir, previously played by Henry Cavill and Kim Bodnia, respectively. While Cavill's departure and the choice to recast him with "The Hunger Games" star Liam Hemsworth has been pretty extensively explained by showrunner Lauren Hissrich, the decision to recast Vesemir with "Trainspotting" actor Peter Mullan has been a bit more quiet. So what happened? 

According to a spokesperson for Bodnia, speaking with RadioTimes.com, there was simply a scheduling issue because the actor was still finishing filming Joseph Kosinski's "F1," which had delays in production due to the WGA writer's strike. "F1" stars Brad Pitt as a Formula 1 racecar driver and Bodnia portrays the former engineer and team principal of his fictional racing team, the fabulously named Kaspar Smolinski. Since "F1" and "The Witcher" have vastly different shooting locations and were filming at the same time, that made it impossible for him to play Vesemir, and thus Peter Mullan stepped in to take over. 

Scottish actor Peter Mullan stepped in as Vesemir in season 4 of "The Witcher," and while Mullan is great in everything he does, the switch is a little jarring, especially when audiences are already adjusting to a brand new Geralt of Rivia as well. It's also just a darn shame because Bodnia was one of the better parts of "The Witcher" and he even voiced his character in an animated spin-off, "The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf," so his absence is missed. It seems like the big issues with recasting in "The Witcher" season 4 don't have to do with who was cast, but with the fact that the parts were recast at all. Our review calls the season the "epitome of squandered potential" and these recasts themselves also feel like a weird waste of potential, given both actors have shown their skills elsewhere.

Not only did the show recast Vesemir, but without getting into too much detail here, the writing team took some major liberties in adapting his story from Andrzej Sapkowski's novels that just don't work. It's understandable that the team behind "The Witcher" wanted to continue the series after Cavill left and would forge on even if that meant other recasts, but sometimes things just have to end.

"The Witcher" season 4 is now available to stream on Netflix.