Director of the John Wick franchiseChad Stahelski has revealed some new juicy details about the Highlander reboot’s story and how he sold the idea to the movie’s leading man, Henry Cavill. The Highlander film first found its footing in 1986 by director Russell Mulcahy, which hosted a bevy of stars including James Bond‘s Sean Connery and The Penguin‘s Clancy Brown. Chronicling a dangerous and centuries-old feud between powerful immortals, starring Connor MacLeod, a Scottish Highlander from the 16th century, Highlander‘s theatrical release didn’t go down too well with movie-goers as well as critics, only taking in under $13 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million.
While many criticized Highlander‘s “silly” dialogue and numerous plotholes, the fantasy movie was praised for its stunning cinematography of the Scottish landscape and the surrealist urban jungles of New York. Even though the film was cited as a failure at the time, it then became a huge cult classic among those who couldn’t get enough of its strange sense of humor, epic sword fights, and incredible soundtrack which later spanned a range of TV and movie spinoffs. Over the decades, Highlander spun out five movie sequels in total and has since built up a dedicated fan base that has cried out for the franchise to be given another chance once more.
Henry Cavill’s Highlander Reboot Gets New Story Details
The versatile Henry Cavill is no stranger to huge movie and TV franchises, playing Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher and also Clark Kent in Superman. Now the talented actor is due to pick his sword up once more in Chad Stahelski’s Highlander reboot. It’s plain to see why the director of the John Wick movies would want Cavill as the staring figure in the classic film, but Stahelski had a few tricks up his sleeve when it came to convincing him to take up the role. In an interview with The Direct, Stahelski stated that his selling point to Cavill was telling him that he’d get to play a 500-year-old martial artist, so the actor would get to cover “quite a broad spread of a character arc.”
“My selling point was, to [Henry Cavill], look, you’ve got a guy that’s been alive for over 500 years. He’s the last person in the world that wanted to be in this situation. So you get to cover quite a broad spread of a character arc there. And you get to experience someone that’s trained over 500 years and sort of played [with many types of] martial arts…”
Stahelski also gave away some vague story details regarding Highlander reboot’s plot by saying that they are changing the 1500s timeline and moving it “beyond present-day New York and Hong Kong, and seeing how it goes.” Stahelski also teased that the reboot will have a love story but not the typical narrative that audiences might expect, throwing in that he has taken some inspiration from his John Wick movies on learning “how to bend the storytelling a little.”
The Highlander reboot will be Cavill’s first big franchise since playing Superman in Zack Snyder’s DCEU and sadly leaving his role as Geralt in The Witcher. Of course, someone as talented as Cavill is never off our screens for too long, as not only will he be starring in Highlander, but also as Arthur Conan Doyle’s infamous sleuth Sherlock in Enola Holmes 3 and the Warhammer 40k movie adaptation, in which he is said to be an executive producer.
Currently, Highlander doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it is expected to hit theaters at some stage in 2026.