There can only be one! And this quiz will determine it! Do not lose your head by rubbing yourself against these 7 questions about the Highlander saga!
Remember the Highlander franchise and its sword-wielding immortals? This saga made fans happy during the 1990s between the films with Christophe Lambert and the series with Adrian Paul. For the nostalgic, we offer you a quiz around the swords of the immortals!
The Highlander saga, which began in 1986, gave birth to 4 sequels (not always very inspired), an animated series, an animated film called Soif de vengeance and a 6-season television series. The latter was declined in a spin-off, L’Immortelle, which only had the right to 22 small episodes.
For almost 10 years, the franchise of immortals has been trying to resurrect on the big screen, without much success so far. In 2011, it was Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, director of 28 weeks later, who was to take charge of the reboot of Highlander. The project, produced by Summit Entertainment, had even announced a shooting date: spring 2012.
Finally, the Spanish director leaves the ship after working on it for a year. Connor McLeod, initially camped by Christophe Lambert in the work of Russell Mulcahy, will not yet know a successor.
However, in June 2013, Ryan Reynolds is considered to embody this immortal fighter, hero of the saga. But as the project begins to look furiously like the raft of the Medusa, the future Deadpool prefers to stop there.
In October 2013, a dramatic turn! Cédric Nicolas-Troyan is hired by Summit to replace Fresnadillo. The Frenchman has made a name for himself in the field of special effects in Hollywood. He notably landed an Oscar nomination for his work on Snow White and the Huntsman. He also served as second unit director on Maleficent.
His ambition? Shoot the film in the course of 2014. Time passes, the different scripts follow one another and are finally put away in a drawer at Summit Entertainment. Cédric Nicolas-Troyan gives up. He left to devote himself to his first feature film as a director: The Hunter and the Ice Queen, released in April 2016.
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.
Stahelski then states that he does not yet know if this adaptation will be made on the big screen or as a television series. The director wishes to explore the complex temporality of the story originally written by Gregory Widen.
“We try to build the project in a way that brings the story well, gives more time to the mythology and brings out the best characters”. The idea that the project could land on a streaming platform is rather enticing for Stahelski, who could have all the freedom necessary to develop the mythology of the immortal head-cutters:
“We want to tell the whole story of the Quickening, the immortals, all that. But the general environment is changing so fast. As a fight choreographer myself, I can say that there are two or three episodes of Game of Thrones which explode 90% of feature films of the genre. Look for example at what Netflix is doing with TV now.
The platform has changed the game of how films are released, letting directors express themselves without the pressure of the box office on their shoulders. So we’re exploring all of these different mediums and exploring the best way to bring Highlander back to life.”he concluded, interviewed by Collider.
At the moment, Chad Stahelski is busy with the post-production of John Wick 4, scheduled to be released in theaters on March 22, 2023. A 5th opus should be filmed in stride. Suffice to say that the reboot of Highlander will not happen for a long time. In the meantime, which do you prefer, a trilogy or a Netflix series?