The continuity of the Highlander franchise is… messy. The original film, released in 1986, is a self-contained action/adventure flick, but then the first sequel, 1991’s Highlander II: The Quickening, made some wild swings moving the story into the future (the year 2024, actually), and 1994’s Highlander: The Final Dimension followed by basically ignoring its predecessor and trying to be a more functional follow-up to the original. After that, the canon didn’t exactly get cleaned up with the TV series and 21st century sequels – but that just means that fans should be very intrigued by Henry Cavill’s new comments about how the upcoming reboot is treating the lore (and how his swordplay skills are developing for the production).
The annual theater owner-centric convention known as CinemaCon is in full swing this week in Las Vegas, and Cavill was on the stage at The Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace this morning during the Lionsgate presentation. In addition to discussing his work on the upcoming Guy Ritchie films The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare and In The Grey, the actor also provided a tease about his upcoming work with director Chad Stahelski on the developing Highlander reboot. The Man Of Steel star said,
I am a lover of the original movies – for better or for worse – and it’s one of those things where reading the script for the first time, I wasn’t too sure where they were going to go with it. But my goodness, what we are doing with this… they just touched on the lore in the first three movies. We’re going deep into the meaning of these characters and their various trials and tribulations.
In the previous Highlander movies, Christopher Lambert starred as Connor MacLeod – an immortal born in Scotland during the early years of the 16th century. He doesn’t age, he is immune from all diseases, and he can heal from any injury other than decapitation. The catch is that he is not the only immortal on Earth, and when one of these ageless beings kills another, they absorb their magic, known as the Quickening. When there is only one left, that individual is granted incredible power and knowledge.
It seems that Chad Stahelski‘s Highlander reboot isn’t aiming to be a straight remake of the original – which sees Connor and his mentor Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez (Sean Connery) go toe-to-toe with an antagonist named The Kurgan (Clancy Brown) – and it will instead tell a different story that digs deep into why and how these immortals exist.
Of course, with John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski at the helm of the project, there is a heavy expectation for amazing action to go along with the story, and Henry Cavill is apparently being put through his paces as he prepares for the swordplay choreography. He continued,
If you thought you’d seen me do sword work before, you haven’t seen anything. I promise you.
One can read that as a reference to Henry Cavill’s time playing Geralt of Rivia on the Netflix series The Witcher – as we never did get to see Superman pick up a blade in the DC Extended Universe and he was all guns and fists in Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Fans of the streaming series dug seeing what he did in that fantasy story, but it sounds like he is leveling up his skills for Highlander.
This update should get any established franchise fans excited for the upcoming reboot… but that excitement needs to come with a side order of patience. While Chad Stahelski has been attached to make Highlander since late 2016, the film is still waiting to go into production – though the plan is for cameras to finally roll later this year. The upcoming movie doesn’t yet have an official release date from Lionsgate, but stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more exciting updates about the project as well as more of our on-the-ground reporting from CinemaCon 2024.