Cavill's Devotion to Geralt Led to Major Paycut
It's not a secret just how much Henry Cavill earned for starring as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix's The Witcher series.
Cavill's paycheck amounted to $3.2 million for Season 1, which is $400,000 per episode. The amount does seem to be a lot but only if you forget for a minute that Henry Cavill is a Hollywood A-lister. Comparing his salary with young and unknown actors would be wrong. So, let's take a look at those who are sort of on par with the Superman actor in terms of their popularity and grandeur.
The Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr., is also no stranger to starring in TV shows. One of his recent works was the multiple roles of villains he played in The Sympathizer series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel of the same name. It's been reported that RDJ made a staggering $2 million per episode of the HBO Vietnam war thriller.
Another good example is Chris Pratt, who inhabited the character of James Reece for The Terminal List show, which is an adaptation of the book series written by former Navy SEAL Jack Carr. Pratt made slightly under $1.5 million per episode.
Cavill's $400,000 per episode for Season 1 of the Witcher and even $1 million per episode for the second season of the show look quite modest in comparison.
One may wonder why on earth such a big caliber actor as Henry Cavill would agree to receiving such a modest pay! The answer is simple – Cavill, who is sort of a nerd, adores The Witcher books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and most likely he just wanted to portray Geralt no matter what, including agreeing to a major pay cut.
The actor's net worth was quite impressive even before he embarked on his adventure across the Witcher universe, which landed him with an estimated worth of at least $50 million.
Although the actor does not sit idle and reportedly has already been eyeing the upcoming Amazon Warhammer 40k series, some fans believe Harry Cavill would look cool in HBO's House of the Dragon. However, it's quite hard to say who of the characters he would be willing to inhabit if any.
The question is how much would the showrunners be willing to pay him. The paycheck of the HoTD lead cast seems to be below what Cavill normally charges – The Witcher Season 1 does not count because he had always wanted to play Geralt and apparently the money was not an issue. While the HoTD main cast is a done deal it is highly unlikely that the showrunners would be willing to pay a high amount just to cast Cavill in a supporting role.