Henry Cavill has sustained an injury while training for the upcoming Highlander, which will delay the start of production until early next year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
A remake of the 1986 fantasy cult film of the same name, Highlander follows a medieval Scottish warrior named Connor MacLeod, who finds he is a member of a race of immortal beings who duel each other for a mysterious prize.
While the specifics of the injury are currently unknown, the start of production, originally scheduled for late September, has now been moved to 2026 to allow the actor time to recover.
A childhood fan of the original film, Cavill has spent months training for the project, already having extensive experience with swordwork on the fantasy series, The Witcher.
The remake is also a passion project for director Chad Stahelski, who has been attached since 2016. His production company, 87Eleven Entertainment, has also acquired the rights for the original film to potentially develop a new TV series for the property as well.
Stahelski elaborated on his plans in an earlier interview, saying,
“…If…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. 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.”
Cavill’s injury and the delay to the start of production may not be as much of a setback as it seems, however, as the director also said:
“If anything, I’m the one holding it back and trying to creatively lay out everything. We’re trying to really lay out this universe and not f— it up to the point where you cannot continue this story…we’re trying to treat it with a lot of care.”
Along with Cavill, the Highlander remake’s cast will include Russell Crowe, Marisa Abela, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Dave Bautista, and Max Zhang.
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