It was a devastating blow to filming on Season 2 of The Witcher when the main actor Henry Cavill suffered a hamstring injury.
However, for Cavill, the injury could have also meant the end of his action movie career and not just an inconvenience while filming in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Henry Cavill does major damage to his hamstring during filming
While filming Season 2 of The Witcher in December of last year, the actor ended up with a hamstring injury, after sprinting through the woods.
At first, those on set were unclear on what happened but it quickly became apparent that the actor was injured. It was then discovered that Cavill had torn his hamstring.
“It was a very, very bad tear, and I was very lucky that it wasn’t a complete detachment of the hamstring,” Cavill revealed recently to The Hollywood Reporter.
At the time, many fans joked about the timing of this injury, according to Looper. As an avid gamer and a fan of CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, this was also the time when another game from this studio, Cyberpunk 2077, was due for release.
It was suggested that the actor was merely “taking a sickie” in order to check out the latest video game.
However, this was not the case and the sustained injury was definitely serious.
Action movie career on the line
Cavill explained that while the injury was bad, he continued to work on Season 2 of The Witcher even though his action scenes had been pushed to the end of the filming schedule in order to give him time to heal.
“The difficulty was working while I was injured,” Cavill said. “Because I wanted to do more for the production — I know how important it was for them to get stuff done.”
It was definitely a balancing act, too, as the actor was warned that if he did further damage to his hamstring, it could lead to devastating consequences.
“If I tear this further, it’s the end of my action career. That was my worst moment of the past year — professionally.”
The actor has earlier detailed his recovery, both via his official Instagram account as well as via an interview with Men’s Health Magazine.
His regime involved getting up at 4 a.m. and having an “aerobic flush session with his physiotherapist Freddie.” He would then perform a variety of stretches and exercises to help strengthen his bicep femoris, which was his point of injury.
Season 2 of The Witcher will premiere on Netflix on December 17.