Even though it technically still exists somewhere out there in the bowels of the industry, it’s very easy to understand why a lot of fans won’t believe John Wick director Chad Stahelski and Henry Cavill’s remake of fantasy cult classic Highlander is really happening until they sit down to watch it for themselves.
After all, it was first announced that a brand new take on the swords-and-sorcery favorite was in the works all the way back in 2008, while the array of creative talent to have been attached to the project in the decade and a half since distinctly gives off the impression that breathing new life into the saga of Connor McLeod is a daunting – if not nigh-on impossible – task.
Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Fast & Furious producer Neal H. Mortiz, Twilight scribe Melissa Rosenberg, action extraordinaire Justin Lin, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Ryan Reynolds, The Hunstman: Winter’s War‘s Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Dave Bautista, and Tom Cruise are just a few of the names to have abandoned ship over the years.
It was in May of 2021 that Stahelski and Cavill were revealed as the latest pairing to try and drag Highlander over the finish line, but when asked by Rolling Stone which project is destined to be his next, the Wick maestro barely gave it a mention after naming Michael B. Jordan’s Rainbow Six and video game adaptation Ghosts of Tsushima first.
“Hollywood likes a good announcement. I’m excited to work with Michael B. Jordan, so Rainbow Six is at the top of my list. One of my favorites for the last three years is Ghosts of Tsushima. Between the cast and the world-building, that would be a dream. And then you have Highlander, which is another world-building epic that spans 500 years. If any one of those three comes first, that would be fantastic.”
It sounds like expanding Prime Video’s Tom Clancy universe is the priority, then, but with Cavill busying himself with Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and an entire Warhammer shared mythology, we’ll just have to wait and see if Highlander ever comes to fruition.
