Henry Cavill’s long-awaited Highlander reboot is still on its way… and it sounds epic.
During an interview with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, director Chad Stahelski, fresh from John Wick 4, confirmed Highlander is still happening, and could be the start of something even bigger.
“I think we have some very good elements now,” he said. “The trick is when you have the tagline ‘there can only be one’, you can’t just kill everybody the first time.”
The upcoming Highlander film has been in the works since 2021 but has been short on updates since it was originally announced. Now, it looks as though Stahelski is happy to give us a glimpse of what to expect.
“I’ll say it for you first, our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that,” he revealed. “But we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel, a setup to The Gathering, so we have room to grow the property.”
Chad Stahelski says Henry Cavill is still in and his HIGHLANDER will include elements from the TV shows.
— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) August 29, 2023
Our full chat: https://t.co/7prMStjefA pic.twitter.com/VwkQKmasCv
That’s great news for Highlander fans, with the TV series a popular addition to the franchise. Unfortunately, the plot remains firmly under wraps for the time being, and we still don’t know whether Cavill will play the legendary Connor MacLeod or even an entirely new (and potentially non-MacLeod) character. (Although, let's be honest: it wouldn't be Highlander without a MacLeod).
“I've been a fan of Highlander since I was a lad,” said Cavill on Instagram when the film was announced. “From the movies in all of their 80s, Queen slathered glory to the TV show with an actor who looked remarkably like one of my brothers. Being not shy with swords, and having a director as talented as Chad Stahelski at the helm, this is an opportunity like no other.”
It’s unfortunately unclear whether the original Highlander, Christopher Lambert, will return for the reboot. He did, after all, appear in the pilot episode of the beloved TV series. Still, this update from Stahelski seems to suggest that we’ll avoid Highlander 2 entirely. Given that it still holds 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, that can only ever be a good thing.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
