Announced for many years, the reboot of the Highlander saga is coming to fruition more and more. We take stock of the progress of the project which will be led by Chad Stahelski, director of John Wick.
WHAT IS HIGHLANDER?
The Highlander saga, imagined by Gregory Widen, began in 1986 with the film starring Christophe Lambert, aka Connor McLeod. The work gave birth to 4 sequels (not always very inspired), an animated series, an animated film entitled Thirst for Vengeance and a 6-season television series with Adrian Paul (Duncan McLeod).
The latter was turned into a spin-off, L’Immortelle, which only had the right to 22 short episodes. For more than 10 years, the immortal franchise has been trying to resurrect itself on the big screen, without much success.
WHO WILL PERFORM THE HIGHLANDER REBOOT?
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) and Cédric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman and the Ice Queen) having failed in their failed reboot attempts, it was Chad Stahelski who took up the torch. The director is an action specialist with the production of the John Wick saga.
In January 2017, Highlander got its head above water with the involvement of Stahelski. 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 parts, taking into account the TV series and this trilogy”declared Chad Stahelski.
“We are currently in the process 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 at the microphone of Collider. For the filmmaker, the vision he wants to put in place is similar to that of the Star Wars saga. He wants to be able to tell three stories that complement each other.
AS CRAZY AS JOHN WICK?
“I was told, ‘Whatever you did on John Wick with the gun fights, we want you to try and do the same thing on Highlander with the sword fights. We want you to do something cool and unique, something that will make the audience say they’ve never seen this before.”Stahelski affirmed.
Words that were enough to excite fans of the saga, knowing the director’s impressive work on the John Wick fights. Two years after these declarations, the reboot had still not seen the light of day. Chad Stahelski then took advantage of the John Wick Parabellum promo to give news of the project:
“We’re trying to tackle it through Lionsgate and the producer Neal H Moritz. Anyone who knows anything about the franchise knows that it is consistent. It’s a good brand. She has a lot of potential. We’re just trying to find a way not to ruin everything.”, assured the filmmaker. According to him, the universe of immortals remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration.
WHO WILL PLAY IN CHAD STAHELSKI’S HIGHLANDER?
In May 2021, after making an impression in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, we learned that Henry Cavill was going to swap his Superman cape for the Highlander’s kilt! The British announced it himself on Instagram, he will be the new face of the franchise of immortal head cutters.
“I’ve been a fan of Highlander since I was a kid, from the 80s movies to the TV series, with an actor [Adrian Paul] who looks a lot like one of my brothers”confided the actor. “I don’t do too badly with swords, and with Chad Stahelski at the helm, this is an opportunity like no other.”continued the actor.
“This deep dive into the franchise’s history, with all the tools at our disposal, will make this film an adventure I will never forget (and I hope you won’t either)”he concluded, visibly very enthusiastic.
Henry Cavill, however, added one last thing in commenting on a photo showing works on the history of the Highlands: “And as you can see from the photo, I recently delved into my Scottish heritage and started doing some research.”
The actor is therefore very motivated by the idea of playing the immortal warrior Connor McLeod (if the film keeps the name of the hero played by Christophe Lambert). If we rely on his physical performance in The Witcher series, particularly his sword fights, we can only be seduced by the idea of seeing him become the new Highlander.
The actor will therefore add a new cult franchise to his hunting list after Superman, Mission Impossible Fallout, The Witcher and Sherlock Holmes (Enola Holmes).
WHEN WILL HIGHLANDER BE FILMING?
Last March, Chad Stahelski mentioned his intention to start building an entire universe around the Immortals, as he was able to do with John Wick. Stahelski also confirmed that he was developing the project with the involvement of Henry Cavill. “I’ve been working on Highlander for years now, for Henry Cavill.”
“It is much more difficult to work on a project like this than on John Wick; the latter had no mythology behind it, 5 films and 6 seasons of a TV series”, confided the filmmaker. On August 29, the director was the guest of podcast Happy Sad Confused, hosted by Josh Horowitz. On this occasion, he once again spoke about the progress of the project, giving some details about his intentions regarding the plot.
HIGHLANDER, WHAT WILL IT TELL?
“I think we have some good elements now. The thing is you have a slogan which is ‘there can only be one left’, you can’t kill everyone the first time. I’ll tell you entrust something; our story takes several characters from the original and lots of details from this world. We also included elements from the different television series”indicated Chad Stahelski.
“We’re trying to build a kind of prequel that would tell the story of how the Immortals arrived at the Meeting [The Gathering]”. It is a sort of subconscious force that incites these chosen ones to confront each other in a duel to the death, where the winner decapitates his opponent and appropriates all his power.
“We have enough elements to evolve this universe and extend the license”, concluded Chad Stahelski. If we now know some elements about the direction taken by the filmmaker for this new version of the immortal saga, we do not yet know if the reboot will be filmed before or after John Wick 5 and Ghost of Tsushima, other projects in the pipeline by Stahelski. On Tsushima, there is talk of some pretty daunting katana fights, good training for the Highlander project?
CHRISTOPHE LAMBERT AND ADRIAN PAUL, A POSSIBLE RETURN?
Furthermore, we also do not know if the director will bring back the former stars of the franchise, Christophe Lambert (Connor McLeod) and Adrian Paul (Duncan McLeod). In any case, the strike that paralyzed Hollywood gave Chad Stahelski some time to quietly develop the project, mindful of respecting the original work.
“Mythology [imaginée par Gregory Widen] is so important that working on it is very delicate. You have to take the time to build the story, particularly through flashbacks, in order to explore the full potential of the mythology.”he declared last March.
The artist is therefore still very enthusiastic about the idea of resurrecting the saga of the immortals. With this action specialist at the helm and Henry Cavill as the hero, Highlander could rise from the ashes and enjoy success again.
A RELEASE DATE FOR HIGHLANDER?
As the project is currently in pre-production, no release date has been announced. We’ll have to be patient if Chad Stahelski decides to give priority to John Wick 5 and Ghost of Tsushima. At best, we can hope to see the immortals again by 2026.