Veteran actor Russell Crowe is set to star alongside Henry Cavill in the upcoming remake of the fantasy action-adventure film Highlander. He is expected to play Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, the mentor to Cavill’s Connor MacLeod; an iconic role that was previously essayed by Sean Connery in the 1986 cult classic.
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The 1986 original Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy, revolves around a ferocious immortal Scottish swordsman, who finds himself in a vicious age-old war against other powerful, wicked immortals depicted through interwoven past and present-day storylines. Originally a commercial failure, the film later attained a ‘cult’ status, inspiring several sequels and television spin-offs. The famous rock band Queen had recorded several songs for the soundtrack, with Princes of the Universe also being used for the title sequence of the Highlander television series. The film’s tagline “There can only be one,” has also become a prominent pop-culture reference.
Director Chad Stahelski, known for the John Wick franchise, will helm the reboot. In a previous conversation with Collider, Stahelski had teased that the film wouldn’t be just another remake, but a broader evolution of the saga. “We’re bringing it forward from the early 1500s in the Highlands to the beyond present-day New York and Hong Kong. There’s big opportunity for action… and it’s a bit of a love story — but not how you think,” he says. Highlander will be backed by Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists, which is run by former Netflix film chief Scott Stuber. The film is expected to open theatrically.
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The 61-year-old three-time Oscar nominee and Best Actor winner will next be seen in Walden Media’s Nuremberg, which is based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. The film directed by James Vanderbilt, and additionally starring Rami Malek and Michael Shannon, is slated to release on November 7, 2025.
Crowe has also recently wrapped the Netflix thriller Unabom, Walden Media’s Cold War thriller Billion Dollar Spy, and the action thriller Bear Country, directed by Derrick Borte.