Was Geralt's voice actor inspired by Henry Cavill's take on him in The Witcher series? 'No, because we were first'

It's often said that good artists borrow, and great artists steal. And given Doug Cockle, the voice actor for Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher 3, has been in the rare position of getting to see a character he's played for years in videogames debut on streamed TV, portrayed for a stint by Henry Cavill (and now Liam Hemsworth), you might wonder if he has taken any notes.

"No," he tells PC Gamer's Joshua Wolens at Gamescom 2026. "Because we were first."

John Schwab, voice actor for the longtime friend of Geralt, Dandelion, joins in with some friendly ribbing of Netflix: "And I still haven't got a call for a cameo. Have you?" he asks Cockle. "No!" Cockle replies, to which Schwab emphatically says: "Come on, guys!"

Cockle does say that he's asked the showrunners—though it's unclear if this is a joke or not—to "bring me in every episode. Just put me in the background. Pull a Stan Lee or something, y'know? Pull a Stan Lee. But did they do it? No."

Despite the friendly elbows going on, though, Schwab is quick to give his compliments: "I like Dandelion, I like Jaskier, he's a fun guy. I really think [Joey Batey] has really done a good job in finding the depths, and it's gone a completely different way.

"But just like—you know, Doug, did you play Benedict in Much Ado [About Nothing]? Doug wasn't the first person to play that part. So you kind of created your Geralt," to which he pins on: "I think they stole stuff from you—come on, let's be fair."

Doug responds: "Well—mmn," as Schwab quite literally snickers in the background. "Henry is on record saying that my performance as Geralt—I can't remember if he used 'informed' or 'inspired' his approach to how he did it, as well. He didn't copy me, he went 'Doug's Geralt is cool, I want to do something like that', and then he turned it into his own. Which is what all artists do and should do, anyways. And he did a fantastic job of it."

We're going to get Cockle do his own, bespoke fantastic job in The Witcher 3's upcoming DLC, Songs of the Past, which Josh saw in action.

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