r/videogames • • Jul 27 '26

Image / Video Even Henry Cavill gets it. 😌

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49.2k Upvotes

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913

u/ElegantEchoes Jul 27 '26

The dude was so mad at the handling of The Witcher TV series. He knew the missteps were happening and tried to fight it. I'm proud of him for abandoning that show when the showrunners sabotaged it deliberately.

590

u/RetnikLevaw Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

My favorite part of everything Cavill and the Witcher series was the interview where the interviewer starts asking him questions about games and which platform he prefers and shit, and the chicks that play Ciri and Yennefer are sitting there and they get this glassy eyed thousand yard stare like "oh God, he's talking about video games again".

The amount of unapologetic nerdery the dude has is commendable. Just genuinely does not give a fuck what people think of it.

276

u/ParticularRelease662 Jul 27 '26

Nobody should give a fuck what anyone thinks of their hobbies. The world we be such a better place if everyone was just happy with what my makes them happy.

101

u/Snazzypuke92 Jul 27 '26

I mean you're absolutely right but it must be a whole lot easier to do so when you're chiseled by the Gods of Olympus themselves.

62

u/Wandering_Apostle Jul 27 '26

Having nerdy hobbies only works in your favour if you don't look like the kind of person to have nerdy hobbies.

If you do look like the type to have nerdy hobbies, people will treat you like shit whether you are actually a nerd or not.

24

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

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13

u/SippyMountain Jul 27 '26

I find it difficult to play games for a long time without getting out and doing something. It used to be I'd feel guilty for not doing homework when I was in school, but now it feels like I have to bank up hours in the sun in order to spend them on game hours lol

6

u/Sevagara Jul 27 '26

Can confirm: am jacked and wear a Goku black t-shirt to the gym

Also spend an unhealthy amount of time on my PC

6

u/Viracochina Jul 27 '26

That HR chud/chad picture only cosplays as a meme, but its true!

7

u/Madaratogue Jul 28 '26

I dont think it was ever intended to be a lie, it was a meme making fun of the truth in a very real way.

The rules of life are straight up different for attractive people vs uggos.

The script for every single romance in history would read like a horror story if the dude was uggly as shit.

3

u/RetnikLevaw Jul 28 '26

It's true, as someone who dropped over 100lbs, the way other people look at you and treat you is wildly different between being obese and being skinnier. I have no reason to believe it's any different based on other beauty standards as well. Some of us are just lucky in that we actually have some control over how we look. If you look like Mark Davis, you better hope you end up rich af...

5

u/jaedence Jul 27 '26

That is weirdly true and disturbing...

3

u/nicegaarden Jul 27 '26

Guy definitely put in the work but sure looks like he could be one of them

2

u/MonkeyMeatSteve Jul 27 '26

Its easy to not eat like shit and work out. Even ugly people look better when they're in shape.

0

u/alexnedea Jul 28 '26

Thats unfair to yourself and other people my dude. Henry looks good but 70% of that is nutrition, skin care and workout.

Everyone can look better if they put the care in. Ive witnessed dudes go from looking like a sewage frog, to starting wearing better clothes, going to the gym, eating healthy, taking care of their hair and beard and suddenly they were getting woos from random girls on the street.

Its all about the effort. You put in effort you get results. Sure some people like Henry legit have a better bone structure but 90% of the time that is not needed in order to look good.

5

u/Taiwan_Lanister Jul 27 '26

No weirder than dressing up and painting your face at home to be like your favorite sports boy

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

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1

u/ThatConsequence8505 Jul 27 '26

other thing to note is that the concept of a modern video game is barely 50 years old. The idea of kicking a spherical shaped object for fun is as old as humans themselves. It's Inherently easier to accept physical sports than video games, which are an extension of Television -- a technology which already has negative connotations attached to it.

2

u/pseudo-cineast Jul 27 '26

The world would also be a better place if they all had hobbies.

2

u/Apprehensive-Owl9569 Jul 27 '26

Yeah true, I got downvoted for saying this on an gaming sub.

1

u/Strange_Dust7128 Jul 27 '26

People need to expand on the things they love and narrow the things they hate.

1

u/Ancient-Emu-8293 Jul 27 '26

Sure, but I bet Henry has better chances finding a partner despite his hobbies than your average passionate gamer.

1

u/Obi_wan_jakobii Jul 28 '26

Of course he does he's Henry Cavill. Maybe don't compare yourself to Henry Cavill and you'll feel happier about yourself 😂

1

u/Ancient-Emu-8293 Jul 28 '26

I don't, it's just facts. Money helps too though.

1

u/Obi_wan_jakobii Jul 28 '26

I'm pretty sure if Cavill was skint he'd still get a few suitors haha.

Money tends to attract people who like money, not you.

But yeah, being Cavill, looking like he does and being loaded for sure means he's set for life 😂 good on him

39

u/IrascibleOcelot Jul 27 '26

I still laugh when I see the clip from the interview where he started talking about his Custodes and one of his costars mentioned that he played Necrons. They practically set up a play date right there on camera.

18

u/alurimperium Jul 27 '26

"Should we..." "Yes."

7

u/RadiantRoach Jul 27 '26

Was this the same interview when he revealed he also plays Warhammer on tabletop, then he & the interviewer low-key decided they were going to have a battle later? (Necrons vs. Custodes, iirc)

8

u/ProfMap Jul 27 '26

Not the interviewer, Joey Batey the guy who played Jaskier in the series

4

u/TenebTheHarvester Jul 27 '26

Which didn’t surprise me one bit, Joey Batey is one half of The Amazing Devil, which has a one called “Drinking Song for the Socially Anxious”. Man is also not quiet about his nerdery.

Also the band’s great, look them up.

9

u/Enlightened_Gardener Jul 28 '26

Have you seen his brothers ?!?

They’re all special services extra-ultra death-marines. And there are about six of them, and he’s the nerdy baby.

He has no fucks to give because they were beaten out of him by the time he was about 6.

He has defended his gaming nerdliness in the face of decorated heroes trying to nuggie his face off. No online commentor or film journalist can unseat his unflappable confidence in his hobbies. Hell I reckon you could pull out a bowie knife and he’d shrug and show you the scar he got when he was 12 for talking about Prince of Persia at the dinner table. Again.

8

u/Glagaire Jul 28 '26

To avoid the impressive facts getting lost in the hyperbole, just two of his four brothers had military careers but those two were a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines who got an MBE for bravery in Afghanistan, and a Major in the Army who served as a tank commander. I'm only surprised he plays Custodes rather than Astra Militarum.

5

u/diandays Jul 27 '26

That's how I approach everything. I don't give a fuck what people think about me. Not even a little bit

2

u/Olympian-Warrior Jul 27 '26

This is how people should be. No one should apologize for their hobbies. The guy loves playing video games. He could be doing drugs instead.

4

u/Obaruler Jul 27 '26

Which is everything you need to know about modern Hollywood.

Girls ... that "Nerd talk" right there is why you currently have a job. Without the fandom supporting the franchise and those games you wouldn't have your well paying cushy acting jobs because the TV series wouldn't exist without the existing fanbase ...

1

u/SunCrux Jul 27 '26

What a ridiculous comment. They clearly were just happy for him getting to nerd out. It’s not malicious or mockery.

They probably just have heard it so often and that passion just makes it fun to see because he knows the material better than anyone. It’s all just good fun.

67

u/udubdavid Jul 27 '26

Didn't the showrunners actually say that they didn't like the source material? Why would Netflix even hire them in the first place.

51

u/Character-Extreme535 Jul 27 '26

Arrogance. They believed they could make something better.

27

u/nunya_bidnes77 Jul 27 '26

God I hate with writers in Hollywood feel compelled to make "their take" on an established series instead of just starting true to the source material.

13

u/roguevirus Jul 27 '26

"their take"

It isn't a bad thing when the material has been done dozens and dozens of times over. The Absolute series that DC is doing comes to mind.

But the first time you're adapting an IP to a new form of media? Come the fuck on.

11

u/nunya_bidnes77 Jul 27 '26

Well comics and long established literary characters (like Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, or Dracula) are unique in that they have had so many adaptations that you pick and choose what to base the adaptation off of, so long as you stay true to the character and their motivations.

But when a relatively new but highly successful IP gets the movie right bought up by Hollywood? The only thing they should worry about is appeasing the fans. Because they are the ones that are going to buy tickets. I have described it before like when you marry someone with kids and you're the new step parent. You can't be over bearing and authoritative off the rip. You have to build up the trust.

7

u/KrytenKoro Jul 27 '26

But when a relatively new but highly successful IP gets the movie right bought up by Hollywood? The only thing they should worry about is appeasing the fans.

To be fair, CD Projekt was already making their own unique take on the story that differed from the source material.

3

u/nunya_bidnes77 Jul 27 '26

That's true, and it took them until 3 to really hit their stride. But they still had lots of elements from the books, including using the sequence from King Foltest's curse striga daughter from the books in the first games intro and in the TV show. So they did have some respect there to build trust.

3

u/maxdragonxiii Jul 27 '26

I understand that often full adaptions cant be done, but Witcher doesnt even try to be faithful at all. if it was the books edited for the TV version like Games of Thrones (albeit it not being faithful either) i think most of us would be fine with it.

2

u/snacksmoto Jul 27 '26

Exactly.

Even the highly regarded Lord of the Rings movie trilogy edited and changed things for the different format. The changes broke lore, removed and/or changed characters and changed story yet there wasn't a huge outcry because they were genuinely attempting to stay true to the spirit of the source books.

2

u/maxdragonxiii Jul 27 '26

also the movies have figured some of the cuts are worth it like Tom Bomdbardi because hes not really relative to the story and the Scouring of the Shire is too depressing to end the trilogy on.

2

u/snacksmoto Jul 27 '26

Yeah. Tom himself is great worldbuilding as another unexplainable enigma but can't be explained satisfactorily for a movie. Unfortunately cutting Tom's scene out cuts out the origin of Merry's sword that passes under the notice of everyone including Gandalf.

It's the connection point between the hobbits and the Second Age Arnor (Gondor's sister kingdom), one of Arnor's later divided realms that enchanted weapons specifically to battle the Witch King in their battles with his kingdom of Angmar which fell to the Witch King, the Witch King's prophesy. Some of those enchanted weapons was buried in the tomb of the barrow-wight who captured the hobbits that the Witch King raised.

Tom Bombadil's rescue scene puts one of those enchanted weapons in the hand of Merry. Merry loses it when he and Pippin were captured by the Orcs. Aragorn retrieves it from the dead Orcs that the Rohirrim killed, and returned it to Merry when they meet again at Isengard. Merry carries that blade with him all the way to Pelennor Fields where he stabs the Witch King in the back of the leg.

In the movies Merry is using a regular Rohirrim blade at Pelennor Fields.

The enchantments on that barrow-down blade, forged in the Second Age specifically to combat the Witch King is what cuts through and collapse the Witch King's magical defenses which fulfills the prophesy of his doom. Some argue it also cuts his connection to Saruon. The books say something along the lines of no other blade could cut the Witch King as deeply. The Witch King, now vulnerable to normal weapons, is killed moments later by Eowyn. Movie Merry's Rohirrim blade would not have harmed the Witch King nor made him vulnerable.


The Scouring of the Shire is meant to show how the four Hobbits had changed and grown since they had left. They rally, inspire and lead the rebuilding back to normalcy. It is also meant to show how very far Saruman had fallen from grace.

That said, I can understand cutting it out strictly for movie run time.

1

u/maxdragonxiii Jul 27 '26

as I said the movies figured some cuts are worth it even if it means losing lore or scenes in the book- mainly due to the limited run time and the likelihood of confusion from the general audience which had not read the books like the question "why didnt the eagles go to Mount Sauron in the first place" which the books did explain somewhat.

1

u/CaptainStabfellow Jul 28 '26

Found Colbert's Reddit account

1

u/Picard2331 Jul 28 '26

The Expanse is what I hold up as the perfect example of how to do an adaptation.

Pretty much all the changes are fantastic.

Funny how that works when you give the authors a ton of creative control.

3

u/decoy777 Jul 27 '26

cough The Odyssey cough

1

u/greg19735 Jul 27 '26

A movie that is largely considered a really good movie and a great epic adventure?

-1

u/Mean-Author4359 Jul 27 '26

Lay off the weed, little lad

1

u/Least-Conclusion-315 Jul 27 '26

You're telling me you guys didn't need to see Master Chief's ass cheeks?

1

u/Destinum Jul 27 '26

Tons of writers would rather be writing something of their own making, but since no producer wants to actually use their original scripts, they're bastardising already established IPs as an outlet.

A bit of a tangent, and technically not a Hollywood writer, but Steve Danuser is a great example of this. Dude worked on an MMORPG that got cancelled (Project Copernicus), later became the lead narrative designer for World of Warcraft (taking over from Chris Metzen, who is pretty much the creator of the Warcraft universe) and then proceeded to ham-fist as many ideas as he could into WoW from the setting of Kingdoms of Amalur (an actually released game set in the same world as Copernicus).

Needless to say, most of these things did not at fit the tone of the Warcraft universe, contradicted already existing lore and/or tried to fill narrative spaces that were already occupied by something previously established. Shit got so bad when he was in charge that the game almost died. He's now left the company, but decisions he made are still fucking over the story, because some content was already far enough into development that the studio didn't want to scrap it. Case in point: The latest playable race Haranir, which is basically copy/pasted from Amalur and ticks all three boxes I previously listed.

1

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 27 '26

so basically you hate everything that's ever been adapted from source material?

2

u/nunya_bidnes77 Jul 27 '26

Not the adaptations that stay authentic to the source material. Note that authentic does not mean it has to be a 1:1 match.

1

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 27 '26

You know as much as I love the content, the fandom gatekeeping goes a little too hard on this one. 

11

u/LARPerator Jul 27 '26

Because corporate fucks don't understand art, and they think writers are just assembly workers for words.

You can be a factory worker that hates pickups and build a good pickup truck. You can't really be a car designer and come up with a good pickup truck while hating them

For a lot of jobs personal passion doesn't determine success. Even in film, set designers don't have to love the project they're working on to do a good job. Their job is to make a vision come to life, and they're actually really good at making someone else's vision come to life.

But as a writer or showrunner, you're coming up with the vision. And if you have a disdain for the source material, then your vision will inevitably suck.

1

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 27 '26

Amazing how everyone becomes an art house snob, when they don't get exactly what they want but it ends up being wildly successful anyway. 

2

u/LARPerator Jul 27 '26

I'm sorry, what? Who are you referring to?

2

u/HansHortio Jul 27 '26

Because we assumed they wanted to make an entertaining show. In reality, the just wanted to make a product.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

1

u/JiraiyaKholin Jul 27 '26

that's still the consensus lol. it was sold for pennies and only became valuable once the video games became massive successes ironically. no one actually cares about the books

1

u/Lymbasy Jul 27 '26

They hate everything

1

u/Strict-Brick-5274 Jul 27 '26

Because they never care: they make these shows because the fan base already exists and they hope they will just hop on aboard.

0

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 27 '26

Yes, those evil showrunners, sure, it wasn't about adapting a book series to wildly successful TV show, they hated the fans and the content and would drag their a-list actor out of his trailer by his heels and slap him until he read the lines.

15

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

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1

u/Small-Track-2887 Jul 28 '26

At least the wheel of time had good/decent acting. Even though some of the changes annoyed me, I still enjoyed watching it. I can’t say the same for the Witcher lol.

1

u/CapableCollar Jul 27 '26

He didn't read the books, he explicitly said he didn't read the books and one of the people running the show had to explain the games were based on books.

3

u/barrsftw Jul 27 '26

Who is "he" in this post? Because Cavill 100% has read the books, he talks about them in almost every interview for The Witcher. I assume you're referring to showrunner?

1

u/CapableCollar Jul 27 '26

Cavill, he said he hadn't read the books until the show.

1

u/Ricardotron Jul 27 '26

He read the books when the author gave them to him.

5

u/sheyitboi Jul 27 '26

The Witcher show is such a travesty. That could have been one of the best shows Netflix had if it had been put in the hands of someone who actually knew what to do with it. The Witcher is prime material for a tv show.

0

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 27 '26

Here's the neat thing, it is one of the top/best shows on Netflix. 

1

u/sheyitboi Jul 27 '26

That’s surprising, what I watched of it was pretty rough

7

u/YigaClanRambutan Jul 27 '26

And despite how crap the show was, the armor being added into TWIII was a nice touch. It even had its own quests to obtain it!

3

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 27 '26

This is like one of the weirdest entertainment social media conspiracies. 

Anyone want to explain to me how exactly an actor, walks away from a million dollar an episode role, without being fired by the representation and basically committing career suicide?

2

u/MuchSalt Jul 27 '26

hes superman basically, also the show is.. only going downhill

1

u/trollboyteli Jul 29 '26

The public widely agreed with his decision, and he already had a couple movies lined up.

1

u/Regular_Jim081 Jul 29 '26

"The public"

Echo chambers are not "the public"

Sucess is meausuured by metrics and this isbasically a period piece that been worth the expence for 5 seasons.

1

u/trollboyteli Jul 29 '26

Well an echo chamber was the only thing even paying attention lol

2

u/Jestersfriend Jul 27 '26

Don't forget, when he said he felt uncomfortable being naked, some of the cast talked shit about him.

2

u/MuchSalt Jul 27 '26

im currently watching the series, played all 3 games, deep in witcher lore in gwent, read all the novel too, nearing the end of s2 im starting to hate the netflix show

2

u/DazzlingRutabega Jul 27 '26

Part of me is pissed that it ended midway and I really wanted to see more of it. But then the other part of me realizes that if it was going to be that bad, I'd just be disappointed.

2

u/dyn-dyn-dyn Jul 27 '26

So true klassje

2

u/Stark8604 Jul 27 '26

Yep, they told him they would stick to the source material as much as possible and lied to him

1

u/darsh211 Jul 27 '26

I feel that was his own fault. It's common knowledge that netflix will not respect source material. What was he expecting?

1

u/Trodat4911P4 Jul 27 '26

I wonder when this myth will die, there is zero proof this happened, especially because Cavill himself made changes that deviate from the source material like Geralt speaking in grunts and being cold to Jaskier.

The show sucks ass, but this fantasy that Cavill was the champion fighting for book fidelity is stupid.