Jeremy Irons Will Battle Henry Cavill In Highlander

The legendary thesp has joined the Gathering for John Wick director Chad Stahelski’s remake.

Jeremy Irons has signed on to Chad Stahelski’s upcoming remake of ’80s fantasy banger, Highlander. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news earlier, noting that the legendary British thesp will be joining a stellar cast that already includes Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Marisa Abela, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan and Djimon Hounsou.

This isn’t Irons’ first swing at fantasy. Those with long memories might recall he played Mage Profion in the widely derided 2001 Dungeons & Dragons movie. Remember that one? Tom Baker played an elf. Having not learned his lesson, he also showed up in 2006’s Eragon.

Highlander sees him play the leader of the Watchers, a shadowy order who keep an eye on the film’s immortal warriors as they battle each other down through the shenturies, leading many shecret lives, etcetara and so forth. The film’s roster of sword-swingers includes Cavill as Connor McLeod, the titular hero; Crowe as his mentor, Ramirez; Bautista as evil barbarian the Kurgan; and Honsou as “an immortal warrior from Africa”.

On the mortal side of things, Gillan is playing McLeod’s mortal wife back in the day, while Abela is playing his modern day love interest.

John Wick architect Chad Stahelski is directing from a script by Michael Finch. Production was due to start right about nowish, but Cavill sustained an injury during training, resulting in the shoot being pushed to early 2026.

If you’re an avowed fan of the whole Highlander dealio, you’ll already have realised that the Watchers made their debut in the Highlander TV series, which means that Stahelski and company are roping in at least one or two concepts from the broader franchise. Everything else we’ve heard so far maps fairly closely onto the original film – Djimon Honsou’s character might be unnamed at this point, but there’s an almost 100% chance he’s playing Hugh Quarshie’s Kastagir. Of course, the larger Highlander mythology is an absolute dog’s breakfast, so anything pulled from there should be viewed with extreme caution.

Still, Highlander 202X is looking good! Stahelski’s a generational talent as an action director and a huge fan of the original, and the cast is hard to argue with. Only one question hangs over the whole enterprise: who’s doing the soundtrack?