According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming Highlander reboot has found its villain in the hulking form of Dave Bautista!
40 years after its release, Highlander remains a wonderful cult favorite movie. It starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, a 15th-century Scotsman who’s killed in battle only to become part of a race of Immortals among humanity. They can recover from almost any wound with the ability to die only to return to life with their wounds healed. The one death they can’t return from is decapitation.
These Immortals play “the Game,” a duel where the winner beheads his enemy. That unleashes the "Quickening," a massive energy surge that transfers the loser’s power to the winner. The ultimate goal is the “Prize,” supposedly the power of every Immortal who ever lived. That leads to the franchise’s tag line, “There can be only one.”
Connor is trained by Egyptian-turned-Spanish warrior Ramirez (Sean Connery) and lives almost 500 years into the present day. That’s when the "Gathering" of the last Immortals brings Connor to his destiny.
The upcoming reboot, directed by Chad Stahelski, will star Henry Cavill as MacLeod, while Russell Crowe takes on the role of Ramirez. The recent news shares that Bautista is in final negotiations to play the movie’s villain, believed to be the Kurgan. A murderous centuries-old Immortal warrior, the Kurgan was memorably played by Clancy Brown in the original movie.
The Highlander franchise has seen its ups and downs over the years. The original film was followed by a 1991 sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, that is regarded as many as one of the worst movies ever made. It even has an impressively bad 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. The franchise tried to bounce back with 1994’s Highlander: The Final Dimension, which was better.
The series really found success with fans in the mid-1990s as a syndicated TV series starring Adrian Paul as Connor’s kinsman Duncan MacLeod (Lambert appeared in the first episode). It ran six seasons with its own spinoff, The Raven, and the 2000 Highlander: Endgame film uniting Paul and Lambert.
The franchise has had a few attempts over the years to revive itself, but nothing until this coming film.
Casting Bautista in the role of the Kurgan is a good choice, as the former pro wrestler has made a name for himself in Hollywood, notably as Drax in the MCU, but has also appeared in various roles in other big movies, including Spectre, Dune, and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. He could be completely believable as this brutal ancient warrior clashing with Cavill.
The film is set to start production in September for a 2026 release. With Bautista on board, Highlander, like its Immortal hero, is set to rise from the dead once again.