Highlander Reboot/Prequel Anticipation Thread

[Iamnotspock]

I'm a fan of the original movie and the TV series, the latter of which I think is - on balance - the best iteration of the franchise. There's a fairly good model stop-motion fan film on YouTube (featuring Elizabeth Gracen reprising Amanda) called Highlander: Veritas, which follows on from Endgame and is worth checking out for the novelty of seeing Highlander done in the style of Robot Chicken.

The movie gives us one of the most bonkers moments in cinema, that of Christophe Lambert, who's about as Scottish as a croissant, explaining haggis to Sean Connery.

I'm cautiously excited for this reboot. Cavill (who seems to be making a thing of taking on iconic roles in franchise reboots; Superman, Napoleon Solo and now Connor MacLeod) seems much closer to a Duncan type than Lambert's Connor.

 

[Owain Taggart]

There's one final season of Outlander to go and it's probably in production now so Sam should be free later this year.

I didn't realize there was another one. I thought the one that's currently on Netflix was the last one, given it's only 8 episodes long. But yeah, if he's out of a contract by then, then perfect.

 

[Marc]

I didn't realize there was another one. I thought the one that's currently on Netflix was the last one, given it's only 8 episodes long. But yeah, if he's out of a contract by then, then perfect.

Still four eps of the current season (7) to come and then 8 as the final.

Have the Watchers be part of the lore from day one, and have the Watchers clean up after duels so that there aren't dozens of headless people all over the place.

or the release of the quickening disintegrates the body given that many of them are pretty old.

 

[Jedi Marso]

One thing I always chuckled about with the series was that so many older immortals seemed to have learned absolutely nothing in the centuries they'd been alive, or managed to amass enough resources to live without needing to resort to petty theft, shenanigans, or borrowing from their friends.

In reality, a 400 year old immortal would probably live in a shadow world where nobody knew of his existence for the most part, he was rarely seen, and had an entire 'secret society' like the Templars or something as his personal staff to do his bidding, mind his investments, keep the properties free of trespassers, and ensure his existence and training was undisturbed. Meetings between immortals would require decades worth of Machiavellian planning and execution, like a gang war of old (but more subtle), resulting in a meeting between two master swordsmen where the duel would be over in a pass or two and winner take all. An organization like the Watchers would have been eradicated as soon as the first immortal learned of its existence. The deal where they randomly bump into each other on a street and have a sword fight in the dirty alley a block over? That wouldn't happen between men and women who had survived for centuries. As TV entertainment it would be pretty boring, but that is how it would probably go.

 

[Tosk]

In reality, a 400 year old immortal would probably live in a shadow world where nobody knew of his existence for the most part

Nah, just do like Duncan MacLeod...live life large, and use your real name freely for hundreds of years. No problem.

 

[Starkers]

I'm still not sure whether I saw all of the series or not but suspect I saw a lot of it. I seem to recall that Methos was my favourite character by far and my only real memory of the show is the episode where he castigated all the newer immortals for growing up in a world where chivalry and nobility existed whereas he'd come from a much more barbaric time and hence could be way more of a bastard!

 

[SithHappens]

I'm a fan of the original movie and the TV series, the latter of which I think is - on balance - the best iteration of the franchise. There's a fairly good model stop-motion fan film on YouTube (featuring Elizabeth Gracen reprising Amanda) called Highlander: Veritas, which follows on from Endgame and is worth checking out for the novelty of seeing Highlander done in the style of Robot Chicken.

The movie gives us one of the most bonkers moments in cinema, that of Christophe Lambert, who's about as Scottish as a croissant, explaining haggis to Sean Connery.

I'm cautiously excited for this reboot. Cavill (who seems to be making a thing of taking on iconic roles in franchise reboots; Superman, Napoleon Solo and now Connor MacLeod) seems much closer to a Duncan type than Lambert's Connor.

Never knew about this. Watched the 1st series last night. Fun and the voices pretty good.

 

[SithHappens]

I'm still not sure whether I saw all of the series or not but suspect I saw a lot of it. I seem to recall that Methos was my favourite character by far and my only real memory of the show is the episode where he castigated all the newer immortals for growing up in a world where chivalry and nobility existed whereas he'd come from a much more barbaric time and hence could be way more of a bastard!

yeah methos was good there is a fan animated series the methos chronicles online, saw it years ago but don't recall that much about it

 

[Forbin]

I gave up on Highlander after season one, because of girls and beer.

So this is still a chink in my nerd cred.

I just found this out, but I assume you've know for decades...

Raven is set in an alternate universe where Duncan was never born.

Therefore Evil mirror universe Amanda has evil mirror universe hair

WTF?

It's a spin off from a show that does not exist?

I suppose that's the same deal as Star Trek Discovery?

No, I never heard that! That's a huge WTF.

EDIT: Okay, I read the rest of the thread now. Never mind.

 

[Guy Gardener]

No, I never heard that! That's a huge WTF.

That was me reading abridged links.

I thought they were describing Highlander the Raven, but they were describing the "It's a wonderful Life" episode of Regular Highlander.

Sorry.

Just finished three and four for the first time ever.

Three was a do-over of one, with out the charm.

I accidentally read ahead, and the internet is trying to tell me, that the prize is "fertility".

Can you imagine the Kurgen would have fought so hard, for so many thousands of years, if any one explained to him accurately, that all everything was leading to was "they're going to reactivate your sperms, and then you die".

Oh!

The legend and voice over at the very beginning in movie one: "from the dawn of time we came".

That totally explains the million years in the past bullshit from Highlander two, if you are insane.

 

[wayoung]

That was me reading abridged links.

I thought they were describing Highlander the Raven, but they were describing the "It's a wonderful Life" episode of Regular Highlander.

Sorry.

Just finished three and four for the first time ever.

Three was a do-over of one, with out the charm.

I accidentally read ahead, and they its trying to tell me, that the prize is "fertility".

Can you imagine the Kurgen would have fought so hard, for so many thousands of years, if any one explained to him accurately, that all everything was leading to was "they're going to reactivate your sperms, and then you die".

Oh!

The legend and voice over in movie one: "from the dawn of time we came".

That totally explains the million years in the past bullshit from Highlander two, if you are insane.

The fertility thing was what Duncan got killing the source demon, not "The Prize" prize. It was supposed to be the start of a new franchise centered around Duncan's kid, named Connor, who would also be immortal.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The fertility thing was what Duncan got killing the source demon, not "The Prize" prize. It was supposed to be the start of a new franchise centered around Duncan's kid, named Connor, who would also be immortal.

I have not seen movie 5 yet. That's for tomorrow (it's 3 am!)

Yonks ago when I was buying 90 percent off dvds from run down, closing down video rental store, I wanted to finish the TV show first before I moved onto the last three movies, but I could not be assed to watch 4 seasons of 90s bollocks when Game of Thrones was blowing away all my preconceptions about what TV could do for me.

Connor became Fertile at the end of movie one.

He became Fertile, and unless Brenda died pregnant, he knew better than to try and eat his condoms before coitus, and chose not to have children.

 

[wayoung]

I have not seen movie 5 yet. That's for tomorrow (it's 3 am!)

Yonks ago when I was buying 90 percent off dvds from run down, closing down video rental store, I wanted to finish the TV show first before I moved onto the last three movies, but I could not be assed to watch 4 seasons of 90s bollocks when Game of Thrones was blowing away all my preconceptions about what TV could do for me.

Connor became Fertile at the end of movie one.

He became Fertile, and unless Brenda died pregnant, he knew better than to try and eat his condoms before coitus, and chose not to have children.

Oh I thought you meant you read ahead and that was the prize you read about, so I was clarifying that.

The prize prize in the first movie was telepathy, the ability to remake the world in your own image. That's why it had to be kept from the hands of The Kurgan. The fertility thing was part of his becoming mortal.

 

[Guy Gardener]

The prize was a few things.

How long was he telepathic?

He didn't seem like a mind reader in Highlander II.

I could imagine that the prize might have been to be telepathic for one hour.

Mortal until you die, shooting live rounds until you look like you're 65, and telepathic for one hour.

Unless he used the telepathy to build the shield, by channeling all the world's genius into his brain at the same time? If he's not an alien physicist from Zeist in command of super science?

Which still that might only mean 5 years worth of telepathy?

Although remember when Buffy almost went insane from hearing Joyce go on and on about how good Giles was at roughing her up on a cop car hood? If the power was driving him insane, and he couldn't will it to turn off, 4 billion people screaming at him, then Connor may have had to have had a lobotomy to ameliorate his suffering?

But about The Source, I read that Duncan became pregnant at the end of movie 5, so I made some assumptions.

 

[wayoung]

The prize was a few things.

How long was he telepathic?

He didn't seem like a mind reader in Highlander II.

I could imagine that the prize might have been to be telepathic for one hour.

Mortal until you die, shooting live rounds until you look like you're 65, and telepathic for one hour.

Unless he used the telepathy to build the shield, by channeling all the world's genius into his brain at the same time? If he's not an alien physicist from Zeist in command of super science?

Which still that might only mean 5 years worth of telepathy?

Although remember when Buffy almost went insane from hearing Joyce go on and on about how good Giles was at roughing her up on a cop car hood? If the power was driving him insane, and he couldn't will it to turn off, 4 billion people screaming at him, then Connor may have had to have had a lobotomy to ameliorate his suffering?

But about The Source, I read that Duncan became pregnant at the end of movie 5, so I made some assumptions.

You're trying to apply too much logic to Highlander 2. It completely ignores the telepathy. It's it's own thing. But if you go back and re-watch the end of Highlander it's not exactly subtle. During the quickening with the Kurgan as all Quickenings unite within him he screams that he knows everything, is everything, then they cut to him and Brenda and Brenda asks him what the prize is, and he says it's a whirlwind in his head but if he focuses he knows what everyone is thinking and he can help them all understand each other.

The Source "heals" the immortality out of Duncan, making him human, which is why he can have kids.

So the next trilogy was going to be 20 years later with a new Connor MacLeod (Duncan's son) as the lead and no longer pretending Adrian Paul is 18.

 

[SithHappens]

I also like to think Dr Henry Morgan from Forever exists in the same universe. If you ignore the waking up in water part. Another show I'd love to see more of but sadly there wont be, although it's not a stretch to see Harrow as a sequel series to Forever if you ignore the immortal bit.

 

[bdub76]

I also like to think Dr Henry Morgan from Forever exists in the same universe. If you ignore the waking up in water part. Another show I'd love to see more of but sadly there wont be, although it's not a stretch to see Harrow as a sequel series to Forever if you ignore the immortal bit.

Harrow was a great show.

 

[JD]

I'm curious about the reboot, I'm a big fan of Cavill, and while I'm not super familar with the franchise, I like it enough to want to see how the reboot handles it. I've seen the first movie, the first handful of episodes of the first season of the series, and I tried the second movie once, but I don't think I even made it 15 minutes into it before I gave up.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm curious about the reboot, I'm a big fan of Cavill, and while I'm not super familar with the franchise, I like it enough to want to see how the reboot handles it. I've seen the first movie, the first handful of episodes of the first season of the series, and I tried the second movie once, but I don't think I even made it 15 minutes into it before I gave up.

Second movie?

They never made a second movie.



In a bar, in the 90s, I kept this joke up for an hour while a drunk person tried to explain the plot of Highlander II to me, and that it exists, and that we should go down to Blockbusters and rent it immediately to prove me wrong.

 

[Tosk]

Plot twist, the drunk guy was actually drunk Guy, arguing with himself.