Gladiator star Russell Crowe is set to play a Spanish warrior again, this time in the long-in-gestation Highlander reboot.
Here in 2025, it almost feels like you need to be an immortal to be sure that you’ll be around to watch the long-mooted Highlander remake. It’s a project that this website has been reporting on since it began, and with cameras not yet rolling, we could be reporting on things for a while longer yet.
A remake of Highlander has been in some form of development for almost two decades, with Ryan Reynolds set to star at one point and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directing. That iteration is long dead though, and the current version – that will again see immortals duelling throughout history to claim ultimate supremacy – will be directed by Chad Stahelski and star Henry Cavill.
According to Collider, Cavill’s Connor MacLeod will be joined by none other than Russell Crowe, who is set to play a mentor figure to the younger character. The duo have already established a similar relationship dynamic on screen once before, playing father and son in 2013’s Man Of Steel.
It looks like Crowe will be playing a character similar to the Sean Connery role in the 1986 film. Connery’s Juan Sánchez-Villalobos bought some vital humour and star power to the original film, so here’s hoping Crowe will do the same here. In another nod to the 1986 original, we’ve already been told that we’re getting some Queen music at some point in the film, although we’re still waiting to see who is going to try and fill the formidable boots of Clancy Brown as the film’s antagonist.
Crowe’s slate continues to look brilliantly diverse as he lines up all kinds of projects to star in throughout his early to mid-60s. As well as this big splashy studio film, he’ll also star in The Last Druid, a lower-budget genre flick akin to Crowe’s more recent filmography where he’s set to play Celtic druid, and probably a rather grumpy one at that, in a tale of revenge and violence. Then there’s Nuremberg, a historical courtroom drama primed for a November release which could put Crowe back into the awards spotlight.
We’ll bring you more on Highlander as we hear it.
