Chad Stahelski offers details on his film HIGHLANDER with Henry Cavill

John Wick director Chad Stahelski is working on a few different film projects right now, including an adaptation of Ghost of Tsushima, Rainbow you are with Michael B. Jordanand a reboot of the classic fantasy film Highlanders with Henry Cavill.

During a recent interview on Happy Sad Confused podcast, the director offered an update on Highlander and said it would include both familiar characters and “elements” lifted from ’90s TV series. He said:

“We are trying to tell our story [and it] it involves a lot of the same characters and stuff like that. But we also introduced elements from all the TV shows. We’re trying to make a sort of prequel to The Gathering.”

The one staged for The Gathering refers to the culmination of the almost eternal battle between the immortals. He went on to explain that they’re setting up this whole thing to expand and grow the story. He said:

“So, we have room to grow the property. We’ve had ideas for days about how to make the most interesting characters and make them into an epic TV show. I just think it’s a rich, rich mythology.”

The original 1986 film Highlander starred Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery AND Clancy Brown as immortal beings, who hunt each other down and gather more power. The film’s classic tagline was “There can only be one.”

Stahelski previously spoke about the film and said the reboot would be developed as a trilogy. He explained that they are taking the best story elements of the franchise and implementing them into a single story that will be spread across a trilogy of films:

“I think the TV series hit a lot of great things that weren’t in the movie, between the viewers and all different kinds of immortals. How do we fit that into a movie mode before we drip it into the world of TV? Well, let’s repackage it in parts, let’s look at it as if it’s a TV show, let’s look at it as if it’s a high-end trilogy. How to tell the story of The Gathering, The Quickenings, The Immortals and how do we make this world really build even more than the original project? This is what we’re restructuring right now. We’re taking all the good stuff from the script that we had before I was involved in the project; re-engineering the script to give us really good stuff chapters one, two and three; and expanding the world.”

He also opened up about his vision for the film, saying:

“The vision we’re trying to convey and what we’re trying to develop, I consider it very close to Star Wars. The former is a very satisfying ending but it leaves the door open and that’s how I see it.” . I’d really like to expand that to three. I see The Gathering unfold over three. It’s complicated, don’t get me wrong, that’s why we’re still developing it. We want to be able to tell three complete stories that are all I think the Star Wars trilogy, at least up until The Empire Strikes Back, is a good example of how we want to process that.”

Cavill previously spoke about Highlander, saying: “Not being shy with swords and having a director as talented as Chad Stahelski at the helm, this is an opportunity like no other. To dive deeply into the narrative of the franchise with all the tools at our disposal, it is I will make this an adventure that I (and I hope you all) will never forget.”

There’s no word on when Stahelski actually plans to make this film, but it’s something he definitely plans to make nonetheless. His next film could be Ghost of Tsushima.