Chad Stahelski says Henry Cavill’s Highlander is still happening
One of Cavill’s many fantasy franchises is still in the works and has “some very good elements”
Don’t let the catchphrase fool you: “There can be only one” does not apply to Highlander films, TV shows, and cartoons. There’s an expansive Highlander universe waiting to be mined should I.P. excavators ever get around to it.
John Wick 4 director Chad Stahelski has been attached to a new Highlander starring Henry Cavill since 2021 when the project was announced. Since then, Cavill has left Witcher, re-entered and re-exited the DC universe, teased a Warhammer 40,000 series, and played Sherlock Holmes twice. The guy loves to be in the franchise game. But amid all these iconic roles Cavill has taken on, he still has yet to slip into Connor MacLeod’s plaid—which, for the record, is not a kilt. Never fear, Stahelski says Highlander is still on the docket.
Speaking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Stahelski said they have “some very good elements” but want to ensure the movie has room to grow. “The trick is when you have the tagline ‘there can only be one,’ you can’t just kill everybody the first time,” he said. But the director isn’t interested in just remaking Highlander. It sounds like he wants to expand the weird mythology of the character.
“I’ll say it for you first: Our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that,” he revealed. “But we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel, a setup to The Gathering, so we have room to grow the property.”
Stahelski is also very aware of the material he’s adapting, referring to the original Highlander as “one of the best worst films ever.” Still, he argues, the movie has “power.”
“There’s not a lot that happens in the second act,” he says. “It’s mostly about, you know, bitchin’ flashbacks with Sean Connery mugging the camera[…]You watch the movie, and it has no business being good or cool or interesting, but for whatever reason—the fisheye lenses, weird sword fights, fucked up dialogue, and the Queen soundtrack make it one of the funnest movies you’ll ever watch.”
However, none of this will happen until the studios end the strike. So, if anyone wants to see Cavill claim the sword, they must wait until the writers and actors get a fair deal.
[via IGN]