Hollywood loves rebooting franchises that have enjoyed popularity in the past. In a way, it takes the fans of the original down a nostalgia trip and also brings in a new audience. But oftentimes the makers have to grapple with the question of whether to reboot the original franchise in the form of a TV show or a movie. While there are some that do well in a movie format, others would benefit from an episodic format. And this is something that Chad Stahelski is contemplating about his upcoming Henry Cavill-led movie.

The studios are eyeing to reboot of the 1986 movie, Highlander, and Chad Stahelski is currently attached to the project. While he worked on the project with Henry Cavill for years and planned for a feature-length project, he now thinks a TV format would do more justice. The Highlander universe is vast with elements of mythology. The high fantasy spawned a TV show that ran for seven seasons, five sequels, and two spin-offs. 

To cramp all of that in a 2-hour length movie is proving challenging. Without establishing the mythology in the first two hours, the plot cannot move forward. However, a TV format would allow Stahelski to establish the world and the mythology over several episodes and seasons.

“Now, Highlander as a TV show now would be amazing. You’d have time to build it out, see all those flashbacks and the potential of it,” Stahelski explained to Deadline. 

DIVE DEEPER

Working with established lore is trickier than producing new sequels of John Wick. Stahelski can take creative liberties with the Reeves starrer and mold the franchise as he sees fit since there is no established narrative beforehand. Hence, the delay in the remake to start production. But fans of Highlander are surely going to appreciate the efforts of the director to stick to the source material. 

When will the Henry Cavill starrer release?

The reboot has been in the works since 2008. However, nothing came to fruition, especially after lead star Ryan Reynolds and director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo left the project in 2013. Thankfully, Stahelski and the Brit came on board and now we are inching closer to the release.

The team already knows what they want. They are currently tweaking the scripts and are yet to finalize the script. 

Do you want to see a Highlander TV show or a movie?