In the boxes since 2017, the remake of Highlander by the director of John Wick has not yet seen the light of day! The filmmaker recently returned to the subject to explain this delay.
For almost ten years, the Highlander franchise has been trying to resurrect on the big screen, without much success so far.
Popularized by Christophe Lambert in the cinema then by Adrian Paul on the small screen, the saga of the immortals has since fallen into oblivion.
In January 2017, Highlander lifted its head above water. Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick franchise, takes on the project. The filmmaker has in mind a trilogy between Star Wars and John Wick:
“I think the Highlander series had a lot of good things that weren’t in the movie, between the Watchers and the different types of immortals. Let’s restructure everything into several parts, taking into account the TV series and this trilogy”said Chad Stahelski.
“We are currently in the midst of restructuring. We have to take everything that was good before I arrived on the project, redevelop the script to have an excellent first film, then a second, then a third, and expand the universe”he added to the microphone of Collider.
“I was told: Whatever you did on John Wick with the gunfights, we want you to try and do the same on Highlander with the swordfights. We want you to do something cool and unique, something that will make the audience say they’ve never seen it before”said Stahelski.
Words that had something to excite fans of the saga, knowing the impressive work of the director on the fights of John Wick, especially on the 4th opus released on March 22.
Moreover, after the ousting of Henry Cavill from Superman and The Witcher, his name returns to the front of the stage to become the new McLeod of the Highlander franchise.
As part of John Wick 4 promotion, Chad Stahelski was interviewed by Deadline about this long-standing project. For the director, the Highlander mythology is so rich that it takes a lot of time to do things the best way.
I’ve been working on Highlander for years now, for Henry Cavill.
“I’ve been working on Highlander for years now, for Henry Cavill”reveals Stahelski. “It’s much more difficult to work on a project like this than on John Wick; the latter had no mythology behind him, 5 films and 6 seasons of a TV series”says the filmmaker.
“If I were to do the Highlander remake right away, fans would expect the mythology to be explained and developed within the first 2 hours. You can’t explore the full essence of the saga in such a short time. of time”continues Chad Stahelski.
“That’s why Highlander as a TV series would be fabulous. We would have time to build the story, especially through flashbacks, in order to explore the full potential of mythology. The latter is so important that working on it is very tricky. But I agree, it’s a project that needs to be tackled head-on.”concludes the director.
Stahelski is therefore still very enthusiastic about the idea of reviving the saga of the immortals. With this action specialist at the helm and Henry Cavill as a hero, Highlander could rise from the ashes and find success again. Will the license come back in several films at the cinema or via the small screen?
We’ll have to be a little patient to find out. Indeed, Chad Stahelski must first realize Ghost of Tsushima, the adaptation of the video game of the same name. In this story, it’s about some pretty daunting katana fights, good training for the Highlander project.