Henry Cavill has reportedly sustained an injury while training during pre-production for a new remake of cult 1986 fantasy film Highlander.
The film is set to be helmed by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and will also star Russell Crowe, Marisa Abela, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Dave Bautista and Max Zhang.
Deadline reports that as a result of Cavill’s injury, production is likely to be delayed until early next year. The nature of the injury wasn’t immediately clear.
The Independent has reached out to Amazon MGM Studios and a representative for Cavill for comment.
The original Highlander film was released in 1986 and starred Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery. The franchise spawned four films, two live-action TV series and a series of original novels.
The remake has been in the works since as early as 2008, with Stahelski coming on board in 2016 and Cavill attached since 2021.
In 2023, Stahelski told the Happy Sad Confused podcast: “I think we have some very good elements now. The trick is when you have the tagline: ‘There can only be one’, you just can’t kill everybody the first time.
“I’ll say it for you first, our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that, but we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel, a set-up to The Gathering [a 1992 episode of the series], so we have room to grow the property.”
Stahelski compared it to John Wick, which he says he’d never intended to turn into a franchise and would only continue with a strong enough idea.
“Highlander, I can tell you right now… if we got our s**t together and we pull off the feature, we have ideas for days about how to make the coolest characters and to make that an epic TV show.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day
New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
Try for free
ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.
“I just think that’s a rich, rich, rich, rich mythology. When you can pick any period in time, any nationality, any culture, any type of person and make them an immortal, then have to duel and deal with the burden of immortality, that’s f***ing cool to me.”
Stahelski added that it was a “creative burden”, saying: “I don’t want to be the guy that f***s this up.”
In 2022, Cavill announced that he was stepping down from his leading role in another fantasy franchise: Netflix’s The Witcher.
Cavill starred as demon hunter Geralt of Rivia in the popular show, based on the popular video game of the same name. However, he left the show after three seasons and is set to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth when the show returns this year
