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Google is finally starting the rollout of its all-new Gemini for Home voice assistant to its lineup of smart speakers and displays. The big promise here is that Gemini is far more conversational and capable than the current Assistant, and if you have a compatible speaker, you can use it.

Families looking for a spacious, family-friendly alternative to the typical three-row SUV now have an unexpected option; an all-electric minibus that blends retro charm with modern innovation. Designed to deliver practicality without sacrificing style, it reimagines the family hauler for a new era of clean mobility and high-tech convenience.

The way payments work through Android apps from the Play Store is changing, and it’s all thanks to a court ruling. If you’re an Android user in the US, you now have access to more flexibility and potentially cheaper apps, but it won’t be immediately obvious where to look.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons compelled a lot of people to buy Nintendo Switch consoles in 2020, and it's finally making its way to Switch 2 soon.

Nintendo surprisingly announced a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of New Horizons on Thursday, to go along with a massive free content drop for both versions of the game. This is the first time Nintendo has added anything new to the game in literally four years. Both the Switch 2 Edition of New Horizons and the new content launch on Jan. 15. Those who already own New Horizons can upgrade to the Switch 2 version for $4.99, or that version can be purchased separately for $64.99 if you don't own the game at all.

But what's actually new here? Let's dissect it.

SEE ALSO: The Nintendo Switch 2 has a bonafide hit in 'Pokémon Legends: Z-A' Animal Crossing for Switch 2: Everything new Awesome. Credit: Nintendo

The paid Switch 2 update to New Horizons is the smaller prong of this two-pronged update coming in January. As with every paid Switch 2 update, it provides upgraded visuals in the form of 4K resolution when playing in docked mode. Strangely, this game did not get the customary bump up to 60 frames per second that most Switch 2 upgrades have gotten; it's still locked at 30FPS, which is honestly fine for a game like this, but still a little puzzling.

Aside from that, you can now use the Joy-Con mouse controls to decorate houses. This could be a huge added convenience in terms of precision, if you really care about interior decoration. There's also a new megaphone item that incorporates the Switch 2's built-in microphone, which lets you interact with villagers by shouting their names.

There are also a couple of upgrades to online play. One is that 12 players can now simultaneously visit an island, up from eight in the original game. Webcam support has also been added, so anyone with a camera plugged into their Switch 2 will have their face hovering over their in-game character, perfect for reaction shots.

Everything coming in the free update for Switch 1 and 2 How do I make my real apartment look like this? Credit: Nintendo

The real meat of this announcement is in the content update that will be available to players on both Switch and Switch 2, launching the same day in January.

For starters, there's a new resort hotel on the island run by Kapp'n's family. You can decorate rooms based on themes (complete with provided furniture) to please hotel guests. Doing so will reward you with tickets that you can use to buy exclusive clothing and furniture at the hotel.

Separate from that, home storage can now be expanded so you can store as many as 9,000 items, if needed. The limit was 5,000 before this update. Flora such as trees, shrubs, and flowers can also be stored this way now. There's also a new service from Resetti, who will instantly clear out an area of the island on your orders. This will be nice for anyone who wants to totally reset their front yard or something.

There are also some new items you can get, of course. The most exciting to me are a selection of classic Nintendo consoles which, like in previous Animal Crossing games, can actually enable you to play a handful of old Nintendo games. You do need a Nintendo Switch Online membership to access these games, though. On top of those, there are now LEGO-themed items you can buy, and some The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon-themed items you can get by using compatible Amiibo figures.

Easily the biggest new addition here, though, is Slumber Island. You access it by going to sleep, of course. Slumber Island is basically a completely blank new island that you can customize entirely to your liking. You can choose the time of day and weather, landscape it to your heart's content, and invite any villagers you want to come hang. Perhaps most excitingly, you can invite your friends to Slumber Island via online play, and they can actually help you out with any construction or landscaping projects. If you've ever wanted a more collaborative online Animal Crossing experience, here you go. Players can store up to three separate Slumber Islands per save, too, so you can have one for yourself and one for your friends, if you'd like.

This is a massive update for New Horizons, especially considering Nintendo said it was done updating the game in November of 2021. Sometimes good things do happen to those who wait.

Samsung beat most other phone makers to the punch when it comes to marketing its Galaxy phones and tablets as AI devices. I don't consider this a good thing. Fortunately, Samsung also does a good job of letting you turn all that stuff off.

SAVE $143.51: As of Oct. 30, get the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds for $106.44 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $249.95. That's a discount of 57% and the lowest price we've seen.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds $106.44 at Amazon
$249.95 Save $143.51   Get Deal

If you need a new pair of earbuds, you've got tons of options. You could go for something from one of the usual suspects, like Apple, Samsung, or even Bose. But when contenders like JBL punch above their weight class, you've got to consider them as well, especially when you can get one of the brand's best offerings for a significant discount.

As of Oct. 30, get the JBL Tour Pro 2 earbuds for $106.44 at Amazon, down from their usual price of $249.95. That's $143.51 off and a discount of 57%. It's also the lowest price we've seen.

SEE ALSO: The 8 best earbuds to buy in 2025, selected by Mashable audio experts

These earbuds offer tons of features at their lowest price yet, including a smart charging case with onboard controls via touchscreen display. From there, you can control settings, manage calls, sound playback, and other options before you ever take your earbuds out of the case.

When you do connect them via the accompanying JBL app, you get great noise cancelling with smart ambient noise that you can control to your liking. It uses four different mics to help adjust sound automatically so you can block out distractions when needed or hear certain things in environments that call for it.

Beyond superb audio with crisp treble and satisfying bass, thanks to the 10mm dynamic drivers, these buds are also excellent for calls. They have 6 mics for voice control that help your voice stand out, with VoiceAware support to let you tune how much of your voice you want to hear while on calls.

You don't have to spend a couple of hundred to get great audio. But you will have to act fast for these, as they're only on sale for a limited time as a Lightning Deal. Get them while you can!

Apple's next somewhat major iOS update is almost here.

The operating system for iPhones is getting a notable update in iOS 26.1 in the near future, as evidenced by the fact that beta testers got access to the release candidate version of it this week. We don't know the exact day it will drop yet, but anyone who wants it would benefit from keeping an eye on their iPhone's software update page.

In the meantime, we now have a pretty clear idea of what iOS 26.1 includes. Here are the four biggest new features coming to iOS 26.1.

SEE ALSO: The new M5 Apple products are fast, sexy, and so iterative it hurts An adjustment to Liquid Glass This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Some people are not huge fans of Liquid Glass, the new design language for iOS 26. It makes app icons and other UI elements more transparent, which in turn has made them harder for some folks to distinguish at a glance. Apple has addressed this problem in iOS 26.1, offering a new "tinted" version of the interface. Simply go to Settings, find "Display & Brightness," and look for the new option there once the update is installed on your phone.

This isn't quite the same as being able to turn off Liquid Glass entirely, but it's better than nothing.

Stop accidentally opening your camera

By default on an iPhone running iOS 26, you can open your camera straight from the lock screen by swiping to the left from the right side of the display. This is convenient for when you need to quickly snap a photo without going through the process of unlocking your phone, but it also leads to a lot of instances of accidentally opening the camera when you don't want to do that.

After you've installed iOS 26.1, go to Settings, find "Camera," and toggle off the "Lock Screen Swipe to Open Camera" feature in the menu there. That will make it so you can't just swipe to open the camera anymore, meaning you're free to swipe to the left on your lock screen to your heart's content.

Support for more languages

Adding increased language support for Apple Intelligence features isn't necessarily flashy, but it's important, nonetheless. On the AI side of things, users now have access to these new languages:

• Danish

• Norwegian

• Dutch

• Chinese (traditional)

• Portuguese

• Swedish

• Turkish

• Vietnamese

That's not all, though! There are also some new languages being added to Live Translate for AirPods:

• Chinese (Mandarin simplified and traditional)

• Korean

• Japanese

• Italian

This is sure to be useful to plenty of folks.

Slide to stop alarms

Lastly, Apple is already walking back a change made in iOS 26. With that update, Apple made it so you dismiss alarms from the lock screen by simply tapping a comically huge button on the bottom of the screen. I personally dig this, but as some folks have noted, this makes it easy to accidentally get rid of an alarm.

With iOS 26.1, you now have to swipe to dismiss an alarm from the lock screen, adding a degree of intentionality to the process of making your phone stop yelling at you in the morning. Having to do that will engage your brain a bit, too, so maybe it's a good thing overall.

Do you love using Ubuntu but loath some of its restrictive options and annoying quirks? Even though it’s the most popular Linux distro, it’s not perfect and can feel limiting based on your workflow. Thankfully, we have GNOME Extensions to solve most of these issues and make Ubuntu almost perfect!

SAVE $99.01: As of Oct. 30, the Apple AirPods Pro 2 are down to $149.99 at Costco. That's $20 cheaper than Amazon's price tag and 40% off its $249 MSRP.

Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple AirPods Pro 2 $149.99 at Costco
$249 Save $99.01   Get Deal

Amazon is our go-to for low prices, as we're able to track prices to assure that a deal is actually a good one. But for once, Amazon doesn't have the lowest price on something. Costco, known for big savings in bulk, is offering a low price on Apple's AirPods Pro 2.

As of Oct. 30, Apple AirPods Pro 2 are down to $149.99. That saves you $99.01 off the AirPods Pro 2 list price of $249. That gives you 40% off the earbuds and nearly brings them down to their lowest price ever. According to Camelcamelcamel, the lowest price ever on the Apple AirPods Pro 2 is $149, meaning this Costco deal is just 99 cents more. But there is a catch.

First, this deal on the Apple AirPods Pro 2 is available only to Costco members, meaning you'll need to sign up and pay for a membership if you want to access this deal. The second stipulation, is this deal isn't available to ship. The upside is that it's available for same day delivery through Instacart as long as the Apple AirPods Pro 2 are in stock nearby.

But what's so great about Apple's AirPods Pro 2? The earbuds debuted in 2022, but three years later they're still a great choice. They bring active noise cancellation and personalized spatial audio. With the charging case, the AirPods Pro 2 have up to 30 hours of playback. Plus, the AirPods Pro 2 now come with a hearing aid feature as well as a hearing test and active hearing protection.

Shop the Apple AirPods Pro 2 at Costco for $149.99 now.

Your Meta-owned feeds — Instagram and Facebook, notably — may soon feature even more content generated by artificial intelligence. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself said that was the plan.

Zuckerberg made the declaration during an earnings call this week. He talked about AI being the next big change in what appears on your social feeds.

Said Zuckerberg (emphasis added):

"Improvements in our recommendation systems will also become even more leveraged as the volume of AI-created content grows. Social media has gone through two eras so far. First was when all content was from friends, family, and accounts that you followed directly. The second was when we added all the creator content. Now, as AI makes it easier to create and remix content, we're going to add yet another huge corpus of content on top of those. Recommendation systems that understand all of this content more deeply and can show you the right content to help you achieve your goals are going to be increasingly valuable."

The long and short of it: That likely means more AI-generated content in your everyday life. Zuckerberg also touted how well Meta's AI social site, Vibes, was performing.

"This quarter we also launched Vibes, which is the next generation of our AI creation tools and content experiences. Retention is looking good so far and its usage keeps growing quickly week over week. I'm looking forward to ramping up the growth of Vibes over the coming months," Zuckerberg said in the earnings call. "More broadly, I think that Vibes is an example of a new content type enabled by AI, and I think that there are more opportunities to build many more novel types of content ahead as well."

It sure seems that Zuckerberg both believes in and enjoys AI-generated content. Mashable's review of the service, however, saw it as an "infinite slop machine." It can feel like endless eye candy, designed to grab your attention but not really do anything with it.

So, according to Zuckerberg, expect more of that in your future.

SAVE $640: The Segway Cube 1000 portable power station is on sale at Amazon for $359.99, down from the normal price of $999.99. That's a 64% discount and the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon.

Opens in a new window Credit: Segway Segway Cube 1000 portable power station $359.99 at Amazon
$999.99 Save $640   Get Deal

A portable power station is now at the top of everyone's packing list for camping. These allow you to keep your phones charged, a coffee maker going, the camp lights illuminating the area, and they can even power your laptop should you need to get a bit of work done. Most, however, do not like getting wet. And that makes sense since they're pretty much just a box of sophisticated batteries. However, there's a model on the market that comes with a waterproof rating and it's on a big discount today.

As of Oct. 30, the Segway Cube 1000 portable power station is on sale for $359.99 at Amazon, marked down from the standard price of $999.99. That's a massive 64% discount that saves shoppers $640. It's also the lowest price we've ever seen at Amazon.

The Segway Cube 1000 offers up 1,024Wh of capacity from durable LiFePO4 battery cells that can last for over 4,000 cycles. You can keep devices like phones and laptops charged up while you're on the go with the Segway Cube 1000, but it's also great at home. When the power goes out, keep the WiFi router online with one of the three AC ports on the Segway Cube 1000. There's also two USB-C ports at 100W and four USB-A ports.

SEE ALSO: The Anker Solix C800 power station has dropped to its best-ever price at Amazon — save over $200

In real-life terms, Segway says the 1,024Wh capacity translates to recharging your phone about 87 times or keeping a coffee maker on for almost an hour. If you think you'll need more power, rest assured the Segway Cube 1000 is expandable, with the ability to connect to four extra batteries for a total of 5,120Wh.

But a shining feature on the Segway Cube 1000 is its IP56-rated battery pack. This rating means the Segway Cube 1000 can handle wet conditions like rain or morning dew. Segway designed this model with a waterproof shell, sealants, and films that assisted in the waterproof rating, so this is a great model for those who go camping in damp environments or during inclement weather.

Snag the waterproof Segway Cube 1000 while it's on sale at Amazon for $359.99. The record-low price is an Amazon lightning deal, so it could disappear quickly.

MARKET VALUE: As of Oct. 30, the Pokémon TCG Mega Evolution Mega Latias ex Box is now at market value at Amazon compared to TCGplayer's pricing data.

Opens in a new window Credit: The Pokémon Company Mega Evolution Mega Latias ex Box $37.20 at Amazon
  Get Deal

Mega Evolution and Phantasmal Flames are blowing up in the Pokémon TCG community, and a new ex box hasn't long dropped to add to the mix. In even better news, the Mega Latias ex Box is now at market value on Amazon compared to TCGplayer at $37.20. It includes two Mega Evolution, one Destined Rivals, and one Journey Together boosters, making this a very cool box to crack open.

SEE ALSO: Where to buy Pokémon cards in 2025 — avoid overpaying or missing out on new sets

The promo card and jumbo card is Mega Latios ex, which means this basic Mega Evolution card can be played straight off the bat, using its attack and return moveset to quickly gain the upper hand in battles. Strafe switches out with another benched Pokémon whilst dealing 40 damage, with Illusionary Impulse dealing a massive 300 damage at the cost of discarding energy.

Most valuable Pokémon cards you can pull from the Latias ex Box Credit: Mashable Photo Composite / The Pokémon Company

I usually concentrate on the single card value of one set, but I thought I'd gather pricing data and where to buy links for the top 10 single cards out of Mega Evolution, Destined Rivals, and Journey Together. Whilst all of these chase cards technically have a chance of being pulled from the Latias ex Box, it's a ridiculously slim chance. Being in with a chance of pulling any of the below usually means going through a booster box or two, and even then the odds aren't in your favour. If this is what you're after, do your wallet a favor and just buy the card outright:

1. Mega Gardevoir ex - 187/132 (Mega Evolution)
   Near Mint Holofoil: $490
   Market price: $541.61
   Most recent sale: $420

2. Mega Lucario ex - 188/132 (Mega Evolution)
   Near Mint Holofoil: $499.98
   Market price: $542.29
   Most recent sale: $525.50

3. Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex - 231/182 (Destined Rivals)

   Near Mint Holofoil: $495.99
   Market price: $581.93
   Most recent sale: $504.66

4. Cynthia's Garchomp ex - 232/182 (Destined Rivals)

   Near Mint Holofoil: $289.99
   Market price: $296
   Most recent sale: $291.01

5. Mega Gardevoir ex - 178/132 (Mega Evolution)
   Near Mint Holofoil: $257.99
   Market price: $265.01
   Most recent sale: $255

6. Mega Lucario ex - 179/132 (Mega Evolution)
   Near Mint Holofoil: $273.50
   Market price: $281.51
   Most recent sale: $275

7. Ethan's Ho-Oh ex - 230/182 (Destined Rivals)

   Near Mint Holofoil: $220.03
   Market price: $242.87
   Most recent sale: $221.30

8. Mega Venusaur ex - 177/132 (Mega Evolution)
   Near Mint Holofoil: $190.01
   Market price: $194.58
   Most recent sale: $191.30

9. Lillie's Clefairy ex - 184/159 (Journey Together)

   Near Mint Holofoil: $190.01
   Market price: $194.58
   Most recent sale: $191.30

10. Team Rocket's Moltres ex - 229/182 (Destined Rivals)

    Near Mint Holofoil: $145.93
    Market price: $153.59
    Most recent sale: $149.84

Many prefer to use Jellyfin over Plex because it’s free and open-source, supports features like hardware transcoding, and runs on almost anything. Though the default Jellyfin theme is functional, it’s a bit dull to look at every day.

SAVE $299.01: As of Oct. 30, get the Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum for $299.99, down from its usual price of $599. That's a discount of 50%.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum $299.99 at Amazon
$599 Save $299.01   Get Deal

When it comes to efficiently cleaning your home, robot vacuums just can't be beat. They can handle a variety of messes, they can charge themselves, and they can even empty their own dirt reservoirs. All this while you kick back and relax. If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon just yet, now's the time to do so with 50% off this Shark model that you'll love being able to rely on.

As of Oct. 30, get the Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum for $299.99, down from its usual price of $599. That's $299.01 off and a discount of 50%.

SEE ALSO: The top 5 robot vacuums for carpet all passed the cat hair test

This model boasts powerful suction that can handle all types of dirt and debris in your floor, including hair and other ground-in messes that you might be hesitant about tackling. It has a self-cleaning brushroll that can dig into carpets deeply, with an anti-hair wrap to keep your or your pet's hair from tangling up in said brush.

The vacuum uses Shark's Matrix Clean tech to tidy up your home in a precision matrix grid, which has it taking multiple passes over the carpet to really get in there and pick up even the dirt your manual vacuum misses. Plus, it uses 360-degree LiDAR to map out your home so it doesn't have to keep bumping into things while you're trying to relax.

Most importantly, it can empty itself. Its bagless, self-emptying base can hold up to 60 days of dirt, so you don't have to worry about touching any gross things when it's time to dump. This robot vac handles everything for you.

The holidays are coming up, so 50% off this robot vacuum would help make a great gift, or just an easy way to help you save time when cleaning up for company (or in general), so don't miss it while it's around.

.In the competitive luxury crossover segment, few vehicles manage to combine refinement and reliability as seamlessly as this Japanese-built model. It offers an elegant design, premium materials, and a driving experience that feels effortlessly composed, appealing to buyers who want both sophistication and peace of mind.

In the dark days of photo editing, one of the most labor-intensive jobs was cutting objects and people from the foreground to neatly remove the background. Hours of meticulous work were needed to get a pixel-perfect result. Over time, the tools improved with the development of the lasso tool, magic selection tools, and other similar approaches, making the task a little easier.

Exactly 13 years ago this week, on October 29, 2012, Google released a flagship Android phone in its Nexus line that stood out from all the rest. I'm proud to say I owned one, and to this day, it’s still my favorite phone ever released—the Nexus 4. Let's see what made it so special.

Scream launched a wave of new slasher movies as well as a franchise that followed Final Girl Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) to college, Hollywood, and homecoming before moving on to a new batch of Woodsboro natives haunted by the killing spree of Billy Loomis and Stu Macher. With Scream 7; however, Sidney is back. And this time, her daughter is the target of the latest Ghostface. But she's not alone.

If the reunion of Sidney and her enemy-to-frenemy Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) isn't enough to get you stoked, how about the heart-wrenching detail that Sidney's daughter (Isabel May) is named Tatum? Yeah. Does that hit you like a garage door to the torso? Sidney named her kid after the best friend who got slaughtered by Billy and Stu back in high school. Will Tatum 2.0 meet a similar fate? Or will she "be a fighter" like her mom?

Fear not fans of Scream V and VI, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding are back as resilient twins Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin. But that's not the biggest surprise this trailer teases. If you stay to the very end, you'll hear a familiar voice say, "This is gonna be fun." THAT is the voice of Matthew Lillard, who played Stu back in Scream.

Fan theories have previously suggested Stu didn't die, and has been living out of the spotlight. Could that be true in Scream 7? Or will this sequel go the way of the Billy Loomis return in Scream V and VI, where Skeet Ulrich played a delusion (or ghost) that haunted his daughter?

We can't wait to find out.

Scream 7 will open in theaters on Feb. 27, 2026.

Tesla is recalling Cybertrucks again, and this time a hardware issue is to blame.

The company is recalling 6,197 Cybertrucks in the U.S. due to an issue that could cause the car's detached lightbar to fall off, posing road hazard to other vehicles.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the issue is only present in some 2024 Cybertrucks, and is due to "an incorrect surface primer" which "may have been used to attach the lightbar to the windshield." Simply put, Tesla used the wrong glue to attach the lightbars to some cars.

SEE ALSO: Tesla's Cybercab might have a steering wheel and pedals after all

If your Cybertruck is affected, Tesla will inspect your lightbar and either install an "additional mechanical attachment or replace the light bar using tape to adhere the light bar to the windshield as well as an additional mechanical attachment as necessary," all of that free of charge

We know that the number of recalled Cybertrucks represents roughly 10 percent of all Cybertrucks Tesla has sold so far due to another recall last week. That one affected 63,619 Cybertrucks over software that makes the front parking lights too bright, which could impair oncoming drivers' vision. That issue, however, was fixed via a software update.

Tesla's Cybertruck recalls happen often, and quite a few issues were hardware-related, meaning Tesla couldn't just fix them remotely. (Un)fortunately for Tesla, Cybertrucks aren't selling very well, so there's at least less of them to fix.

If The Witcher fans have been racking their brains wondering how Liam Hemsworth would pick up the leather mantle of Geralt of Rivia, the wait is over. Season 4 of Netflix's adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's books is here, with Henry Cavill bowing out of the titular role last season.

Cavill's last scene as Geralt, in the final episode of The Witcher Season 3, Volume 2, was an exhilarating fight scene. So, how does The Witcher team wheel in a new Geralt? By literally dropping him into Cavill's existing scenes. As Mashable's Belen Edwards predicted, The Witcher got meta.

SEE ALSO: How does Henry Cavill finish up as Geralt in 'The Witcher'?

With showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich back at the helm, the Witcher team has re-filmed parts of the series with Hemsworth in Cavill's place. In a recap that slots the new hire into the narrative to date, The Witcher Season 4, episode 1 has a young girl and a man narrating key moments from the legendary tale of Geralt of Rivia — just as one that people might remember differently. "And when it all seemed lost," the man narrates in the Season 4 opener, "Geralt rose again." It honestly feels like this line comes straight from the production team itself.

The first scene of Season 4 recreates the very first scene of The Witcher Netflix series, in which Geralt fights the eight-legged kikimora in the swamp in Season 1. It was the introduction of Cavill as Geralt, the shiny new screen version of Sapkowski's protagonist, rendered famous again by voice actor Doug Cockle in the CD Projekt Red games and Netflix animated film Sirens of the Deep. In Season 4, episode 1, amusingly titled "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger," the show reintroduces with Geralt fighting the kikimora again, but this time, we only see his face (Hemsworth's) at the end of the fight.

Hemsworth's Geralt fights the kikimora, which introduced Cavill's Geralt. Credit: Netflix

Here, the writers also give Hemsworth the character's signature line: "Fuck." Reader, it's no gravelly Doug Cockle "Fuck" or Henry Cavill-channelling-Doug-Cockle "Fuck." It's a pretty feeble attempt, in my humble opinion, but it's a box ticked.

Featured Video For You Henry Cavill dug deep into 'The Witcher' games and fantasy fiction to get his Geralt just right

This is not the only Cavill-to-Hemsworth recreated scene in Season 4, episode 1. There's a montage of Hemsworth's Geralt and Anya Chalotra's Yennefer of Vengerburg establishing their tempestuous relationship, and a re-shot scene of Geralt meeting Freya Allen's Ciri for the first time in the Season 1 finale as his "Child Surprise."

In another key moment, Hemsworth appears in a re-shot scene from the Season 3 finale in which Vilgefortz of Roggeveen (Mahesh Jadu), the Big Bad mage everyone's been thinking was Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen), kicked the shit out of Geralt on the beach by Aretuza — don't worry Jaskier (Joey Batey) and Milva (Meng’er Zhang) got him all healed up and back in those boots.

Henry Cavill's Geralt got absolutely smacked by Vilgefortz in the Season 3 finale. Credit: Netflix / Susie Allnutt

By getting meta and leaning on the storybook opening, The Witcher Season 4 urgently reminds the audience that Geralt is a character, quite literally including a shot that zooms into an illustration that becomes a real scene starring Hemsworth.

Honestly, the show feels weird without Cavill, who spent three seasons fine-tuning the character, and with Hemsworth never quite embodying the grunt and open disdain that Cockle and Cavill bring to the role. But if you're into The Witcher universe and want to dive back into it, it's got most of the lavish production elements from the first three seasons and well-hewn characters beyond the titular witcher.

The Witcher Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.