Henry Cavill sees Witcher fans as being passionate, rather than toxic

Henry Cavill knows his portrayal of Geralt in Netflix's Witcher series is going to win some people over, and have others extremely angry. Those opinions have already been flying without the series even seeing release. In the interview above, Cavill talks about how he sees those strong opinions as passion, rather than toxic behavior.

...when it comes to fans, it is a fan’s right to have whatever opinion they want to have, and people are going to be upset, especially when you’re talking about books or games, because you’re never going to be the exact person who they had in their head, or who they played on The Witcher 3, for example. I don’t necessarily consider that toxic, I just consider that passionate. And it’s something which I have obviously had to come to terms with over the years.

And for me, the comparison is not like that, with Geralt walking into a bar. The comparison is more meta, it’s more to do with xenophobia and sexism and colonialism and all those effects that that has on people. And then who they divert their fear and energy towards, and that tends to be Geralt because he’s a guy who exists outside of society. He’s not part of a group when he walks into town, and he looks so different from everyone else, and no one can control him. He is faster, stronger, better at swords, and apparently can do magic as well. So the last thing you want to do is — you can’t control him. And you fear him. And therefore, all of your energy, especially in a crowd of people, will be diverted at him, because of everything that’s happening above you in the world."