‘Highlander’ Reboot Update Explains Why It’s Taking So Long
It’s not dead! Writer/director Chad Stahleski has an update on the Highlander reboot starring Henry Cavill.
The 1986 movie starring Christopher Lambert (as a person that talks kind of), Sean Connery (as the most Scottish Spaniard/Egyptian in cinema), and Clancy Brown (as The Kurgan) focuses on quasi-immortal beings fighting for power and dominance. It has become a cult classic. I’m sure all of us reading this have made a joke using its famous tagline. It spawned four questionable sequels (especially that last one), some spin-offs, and a TV series.
It’s been 16 years since the last movie came out. It’s been long enough to breathe some new life into the universe.
A Highlander reboot has been floating around for a bit (Ryan Reynolds was attached at one point), but it seems that pieces are starting to fall into place. We may actually get to see it.
Henry Cavill has been cast as the lead, and Chad Stahleski (co-creator of the John Wick franchise) is attached as writer/director. Both are great fits for the franchise. Stahleski knows how to make fantastic action movies, and having an actor like Cavill that looks the part and can wield a sword would be amazing. Look at him; he belongs in this franchise.
Highlander Reboot Is Still Happening – Update
It will take a while for a new Highlander movie to reach the big screen. It’s being actively worked on, though. Stahleski has a story mapped out and is hammering out the details, which is proving to be a big task. He’s working with 40 years of existing lore, characters, and stories. During an interview with Deadline about John Wick 4, Stahleski gave an update on his progress.
I’ve worked on Highlander for years now, for Henry Cavill. Being retroactive is hard. What’s different between Wick and that? With Wick, you weren’t serving seven seasons of TV plus two spinoffs plus five films. If I were to do a remake of Highlander right now, you’d expect a lot of mythology in those first two hours; you couldn’t explore stuff without it.
Now, Highlander as a TV show now would be amazing. You’d have time to build it out, see all those flashbacks and the potential of it. It’s trickier when you’re trying to do something with that big of a mythology. But I agree, that would be one to take a really big stab at. Here, we just had the opportunity to really learn as we went on with Wick.
With a significant John Wick movie behind him, maybe he can sink more time into Highlander. As with anything: I’d rather the creative team take their time and get it right than rush.
