The Witcher: First Look At Henry Cavill As Geralt Unveiled

While the rest of the world dressed up as ex-couple Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson, characters from Fortnite, a mustachioed Oscar Isaac using chopsticks to eat Cheetos directly out of the bag, and even the ever-cackling Janice Hosenstein-Litman-Goralnik from Friends to celebrate Halloween, actor Henry Cavill slipped into a costume of his own — the one for his role as Geralt in Netflix's The Witcher. 

On Wednesday, October 31, Netflix unveiled the first look at Cavill in character as the stubbly, silver-haired, monster-slaying Geralt of Rivia. The leading man of The Witcher novels written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and the CD Projekt Red-published video game trilogy (which includes The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt), Geralt is one of the few witchers left in existence. Like the true badass he is — just look at those facial scars! — Geralt travels across the Continent on the hunt for deadly beasts, using his extensive training and mutated physical abilities to bring them to their bloody end.

The video, uploaded to the official Netflix Twitter account, opens on a production slate for Cavill's makeup and costume test. Cavill channels Orlando Bloom's Legolas in a silky silver wig, goes full Flynn Rider by smoldering directly down the lens of the camera, then evokes Tessa Thompson's hard-drinking heroine Valkyrie by taking a swig from a flask. 

Though the actual footage of Cavill as Geralt is only about 20 seconds in length, it's been more than enough to get some people excited — and even more disappointed. 

A handful of fans genuinely dig what they saw in the reveal video — like Filip Jęcz, who tweeted that Cavill "looks really, really promising," and Jacob Whalan, who felt the actor "really pulls off the Geralt look" — but hundreds of others put their sassy pants on and fired shots at the actor's appearance, drawing comparisons to campier characters like "a Lord of the Rings elf," Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter film franchise, and Raiden as seen in the Mortal Kombat movie.

"Oh my GOD, the new The Witcher Netflix teaser looks ... not good. Like Legolas got drunk, got into a fight with a fairy, and then puked up a fantasy cosplay. Please be better than the teaser!" tweeted ComicBook.com writer Liana "LiLi" Ruppert, whose fellow site author Megan Peters argued that Cavill "looks like a high-fantasy f*** boy." Yikes. 

Sadly, this is the second wave of Cavill-related backlash to hit The Witcher. When the actor was first announced for the role of Geralt, plenty weren't convinced that he was the right man for the job. Some "nope"d away from the news, and one sarcastically quipped that Cavill's lack of range in acting would actually make him the perfect Witcher.

"Henry Cavill as Geralt? I mean I like him & all and I've been wrong about this stuff before before but... having a hard time imagining it working," Miracle of Sound's Gavin Dunne tweeted. "Was kinda hoping for Viggo Mortensen or Nikolaj Coster-Waldau or Mads Mikkelsen... someone a bit more rough around the edges. Hmm."

Since this footage offers only a tiny taste of Netflix's The Witcher — the video was pulled from the testing phase of production, need we remind you — it doesn't represent the series as a whole, and Cavill's appearance could still change as filming continues. Difficult as it may be to bite one's tongue, reserving judgement and avoiding jumping the gun on formulating a hard-and-fast opinion on Cavill as Geralt seems of utmost importance. After getting roasted for his turn in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Grunge explains why he was the film's biggest liability), Cavill at least deserves the benefit of the doubt and a chance to impress in the forthcoming Witcher series, doesn't he?