Henry Cavill's Close Bond With His Dog Helped Him Form Relationships With The Witcher Animals

To be a Witcher comes with tons of perks but also a fair amount of apprehension. Based on the Polish book series, Netflix's "The Witcher" is chock full of magic, violence, politics, treachery, and fantastic beasts and creatures. In just two seasons, fans of the Netflix series have seen shapechangers, bloodthirsty bipedal trees, invisible wish-granting entities, cursed individuals, and even extraplanar monsters that seek the world's doom. All of these monsters are generally dangerous, though for somebody trained as Witcher, just another day in the office.

As the titular character, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) is a gruff individual who has been forged by his experiences. Invoking "The Law of Surprise," Geralt soon becomes the protector of Ciri (Freya Allan), a princess who has access to one of the strongest powers in multiple dimensions. Ciri is the end goal for many different factions, with some believing that she can help them forge an empire, while others see her as the key to Armageddon. Along their journeys, Geralt relies on his trusty steed Roach while using his innate magical acumen to deal with the beasts of the land. Surprisingly, Cavill has claimed that his real-life pet helped him become close with the onset animals of "The Witcher," but how?

During his travels as a Witcher, Geralt has a horse companion that he names Roach. However, for fans of the book series and video games, there is an important caveat with this name: every horse Geralt has ever had is named Roach, according to the Witcher Wiki. Although the Roach fans have become accustomed to meets a grisly fate in Season 2, which causes a rare tender moment from Geralt, the next episode sees Geralt recruit another horse into his service, who becomes the next Roach. However, as mentioned earlier, Henry Cavill channeled his real-life love toward his pets on the set of "The Witcher."

During an interview with Kevin McCarthy last year, Cavill was asked a wide range of questions about Superman, "The Witcher," and "Lord of the Rings," the interviewer brought up Cavill's famous dog Kal, who takes their namesake from Superman's Kryptonian name. Cavill was asked if he thought his close relationship with his dog helped color Geralt's relationship with Roach, and Cavill overwhelmingly agreed. He added, "Absolutely it does. Kal and I have a very close bond. When you spend that much time with an animal and it's not just an animal who lives in the apartment, and you come home to it every day." Cavill continued, "You develop a very, very close relationship with them, and you start to understand their body languages, and their energies and things which other people don't see, you notice in your own dog."

Henry Cavill then spoke about how the two horses used for Roach, Zeus and Hector, were both exceptionally kind animals and that Hector reminded him very much of Kal. Cavill also mentioned his long love of animals and joked that many of his family members believed that he would end up as a veterinarian in his younger years. In other words, due to his love and compassion towards his own dog, Cavill was able to transfer that understanding to the animals on "The Witcher," and it definitely seems like he was also quite fond of them as well.

This has not been the first time Cavill's dog Kal, an American Akita, has been brought up in conversations with the actor. Speaking with People in 2019, Cavill brought up how he kept Kal close by while filming "The Witcher" and said, "He was there the entire time. He spent most of his time in the trailer rather than on set. Because when he can see me but he can't get to me, he tends to start making a lot of noise. We didn't want him running in halfway through a scene or a sword fight, especially because he would be taking people down. But he was always there." Ultimately, it seems that Cavill is just a big fan of animals at home and on set.