Henry Cavill says he felt pressured to live up to The Witcher’s ‘iconic’ bathtub scene

Actor tried to recreate the scene for Netflix series after noticing it was popular among fans of the books and video games

Henry Cavill has explained how he tried to meet fans' expectations of a particularly famous scene from The Witcher books.

The actor, who was a huge fan of the books and video games before starring in the Netflix adaptation, spoke to BBC Radio 1 about recreating it for the show.

"I don't know how many people [working on the show] realised how iconic it was, that there was already a visual attached," he said. "And so, when I was getting into that bath, I was sitting there thinking, 'I wonder if anyone knows how much this is going to explode, this particular scene.'"

In the game, Geralt is fond of taking baths to wash away the gore from his work as a monster slayer. In Witcher 3, one particular instance shows Geralt with his legs splayed across the front of the tub, offering players a somewhat advantageous view.

According to Cavill, the only reason this wasn't mirrored in the series is because the bath tub was an awkward shape.

"I was trying to put my feet up, and I couldn't!" he said. "The bath was the wrong shape. But I thought that might have been a bit much as well."

It was recently announced that season two of The Witcher will introduce a big change to the timeline, following criticism from fans.

Director Lauren Schmidt Hissrich said: "The narrative structure was put in place so we could tell Geralt's short stories (the foundation of the whole Witcher world, in my opinion) while Ciri and Yennefer could also be a part of the action.

"Their stories don't happen simultaneously, so we knew we needed to play with time a bit."

She added: "In this case, the people who hated it will luck out, because season two is structured differently."

Season two of The Witcher is expected to be available to stream on Netflix in 2021.