I agree that he looks a bit off in that picture, like Johnny Handsome put on a cheap Halloween wig, but I often think those types of promotion and concept photos looks silly compared to when you see it in the movie or TV show. When I first saw the promotion photos of the dwarfes from The Hobbit I thought it was a joke. I think the biggest thing I will have to get used to is the look of everything and everyone else in the show. I bet Geralt is pretty well described in the books but how much of the rest is fabricated purely by CD Projekt Red? The looks and mannerisms of the side characters, the creatures, the cities, the fighting styles, the looks of clothes and armor etc.

After he was announced as Witcher I immediately hoped they would give him a beard else he would look to clean for the grim folklore setting.
Unfortunately the hair only adds to the "decent cosplay" impression.

@cmblasko: Not a video game adaptation.

I would prefer it to be, but it's an adaptation of the books. So it can be compared with the games, as an adaptation of the same material, but that's it.

@jonny_anonymous: Hates beards? Well, a flawed protaganist is an interesting protaganist...

@christoffer: I'm willing to guess that a lot of the main characters (Geralt included) will also have english accents, which will probably rub fans of the games the wrong way.

Personally i'm fine with it, I liked Geralt's voice actor but I think trying to imitate him would be a mistake. I'm curious if they decide to make Dandilion less annoying or just double down on his douchyness. (i'm aware he was pretty shitty in the books, although i've only read the first)

Between this awful looking Geralt and the actress they cast as Yennefer looking like she’s 15 years old, I think I’m good with ignoring this dumb show’s existence from here on out.

@milkman: I'm not the biggest fan of the casting but doesnt Yennefer use some sort of spell to hide her age?

@nutter: Yeah, I don't like the books or the writer so i don't actually know but thats what all the fans are saying. In the book he says he doesn't like beards.

To add to this: Henry Cavill sometimes employs a low, hushed voice that, without being any degree of imitation, comes close enough to being Geralt's voice to be totally serviceable.

This whole thing will probably be fine, though I wonder if its true obstacle will be the level to which it comes off as Game of Thrones-adjace.

It's the fashion model facial expression (the smile, mostly) that does the most to make him look off to me. I buy him more as Geralt here than in the costume tbh:

Well, so... finally Legolas is coming back, right? I hope Henry Cavill will improve his acting performance in order to make himself a better actor. The show demands it.

Can't wait for this. Man Netflixs are killing it lately. And just to think a year or two ago I was thinking of cancelling because we were barely watching it.

@frodobaggins: I think 90% of the Netflix original content is dogshit. 5% is okay and 5% is excellent.

Hopefully this falls somewhere into that last 10%.

While this doesn't look great, I'm pretty sure this series is going to be about a younger Geralt and in the books and the Witcher 1 he doesn't have a beard.

Netflix released a bunch of stills and, unsurprisingly, that dodgy costume test doesn't reflect how Henry Cavill will actually look in the show. Who knows what kind of kind of performance he'll turn in, but at least he's visually convincing as Geralt. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Gallery

@conmulligan: That face close up DOES look like Geralt. The costume pics look like a cosplay photoshoot. Not terrible, just kind of weird.

Why does ciri look like Little Red Riding Hood.

@bladeofcreation: Isn't that all production stills, though?

The medallion ain't right and that's my only real gripe.

It's interesting to see how people will receive this since they said it's going to be based on the books rather than the game, and people are already losing their minds over the fact that he only has one sword - which is how it is in the books. Actually in the books he doesn't even do a whole lot of monster fighting, if we are talking about the actual main narrative and not the few short story collections preceding it.

So considering that I'm pretty sure a large percentage of Witcher fans have only ever played the games, this might be met with a lot of raised eyebrows and possible disappointment.

@humanity: I've only read the first book and it's, uh, rather BORING. And that's not to say it's too long like most fantasy is these days. It's short compared to a lot of modern fantasy books, and still manages to be boring.

@conmulligan: Fair point.

@xanadu said:

Yeah, she does look a little off from what I remember of the character. I think it's a combination of the age and general look that's throwing me off. The shot makes her look very princess-y. And while she is technically that in the books, she's much younger at that point.

Granted, it's quite a while since I read the books, but from what I recall, her arc is broadly similar to Arya from GoT. At the point she would be a feminine princess character, she'd be pretty young. She meets Geralt at like 10 or 11 and pretty quickly swings into tomboy territory and by her late teens/early 20's she's the badass character from the games.

So what they've got going on doesn't really fit any defined era from the stories. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing and they aren't beholden to follow it, but I kind of feel like the character either needs to be a kid, or look significantly tougher than what that screen is implying.

There's sort of a similar problem with the Yennifer shot, too. The actress feels like she's missing a bit of the . . . ferocity that the character has.

I really like that first book full of short stories. More than the longer narrative books that came after, honestly.

Those shots look awesome I'm all in on this.

I've read the first few books and really enjoy them as well as played the first and 3rd game and personally I love the way this looks.

I think that everything looks great and I also love the first book! It will be curious to see where this goes though especially if it is meant to be book focused...things just keep getting worse as the books go, IMO. The games are better than anything after The Last Wish.

@therealturk: The actress is 17 but I'm not sure what age she is meant to be playing Ciri.

TRAILER IS AMAZING

Yeah, the newest trailer has done a lot to make this look more appealing. I'm still not 100% sold on Cavill, but I'm not as worried about him as I used to be.

I wasn't that interested before but the last trailer got me real hyped.

Holy shit something on Netflix other than Stanger Things season 1, and Dark, that's worth watching. Trailer does look good.

I guess I should get around to actually playing Witcher 3.

@north6: my Netflix list is like 50 deep at this point 🤣🤣🤣

@north6: Dark Crystal (f'n great), Peaky Blinders (assuming you're not in the UK), Ozark (Breaking Bad-lite, but still good), Lost in Space (not as good as it could be, but still perfectly watchable), Daredevil (hopefully it will be revived on Hulu), and I hear The Crown is solid.

There's stuff!

And Mindhunter