Director Chad Stahelski says his Highlander reboot starring Henry Cavill will likely be “a little bit of a prequel” to the unique story
Seven years have passed by since John Wick franchise director Chad Stahelski signed on to direct a reboot of the 1986 basic Highlander (watch it HERE). Two years have handed since Henry Cavill of Man of Metal and The Witcher signed on to star within the movie. But we nonetheless don’t know precisely when the brand new Highlander goes to enter manufacturing. However, because of a brand new interview with Stahelski on the Blissful Unhappy Confused podcast, we do know that the film isn’t going to be a precise retelling of the story we noticed within the unique movie. As a substitute, it’s going to be “a little bit of a prequel” to that story.
Whereas Highlander was a superb standalone movie, the issue got here when it was profitable sufficient to spawn a franchise – and the ending of the film actually left nowhere for a sequel to go as a result of it left the lead character as “the only survivor of a gaggle of dueling immortals following their climactic Gathering.” Stahelski goes to be fixing that situation together with his tackle the idea. On the Blissful Unhappy Confused podcast, he mentioned (with because of The Hollywood Reporter for the transcription), “The trick is when you could have the tagline ‘there can solely be one,’ you possibly can’t simply kill everyone the primary time. … Our story engages lots of the identical characters (from the movie), however we’ve additionally introduced in components of all of the TV exhibits. We’re attempting to do a little bit of a prequel — a setup to The Gathering — so now we have room to develop the property.“
And Stahelski and his collaborators see loads of alternatives to rebuild the Highlander franchise from the bottom up. “We have now concepts for days for the good characters [that could make for] an epic TV present. I simply suppose that’s wealthy mythology when you possibly can decide any time period, any nationality, any tradition, any sort of individual and make them an immortal that must duel and cope with the burden of immortality — that’s f*cking cool.“
The director beforehand informed The Hollywood Reporter that he solid Cavill because the lead as a result of “Henry clearly has the physicality, however that doesn’t imply a complete lot should you can’t additionally carry the empathy of a personality that’s lived 500 years, and I wanted anyone who may do each. The character’s arc spans tons of of years and he turns into many alternative personalities, all of which prolong the timeline of his emotional development. Then throughout our first assembly, my suspicions had been confirmed: Henry was instantly riffing on the thought of the burden of immortality and you could possibly see in his eyes that he can rework himself from being a younger, vibrant soul to an outdated, clever soul. He had this mixture I used to be fascinated by. The opposite factor you could possibly see was his genuineness – he actually loves the property and loves what he believes he can do with it, and when an actor has that stage of ardour, you’re going to get one thing distinctive. And at last – you’ve met him, you understand – after 10 minutes you’re identical to: ‘He’s cool, I need to hang around with this man.’“
I’m completely on board to see what Stahelski and Cavill do with Highlander and utterly agree with the plan to construct as much as The Gathering fairly than characteristic it of their first film… I simply want they’d get round to creating the film already.
Are you interested by Stahelski and Cavill’s Highlander? What do you consider it being “a little bit of prequel”, constructing as much as The Gathering? Tell us by leaving a remark under.
