“The dialect coach can sit this one out…” Karen Gillan on twitter/X
As filming of the Highlander reboot gets closer and closer, the casting announcements continue and the Hollywood Reporter was the first outlet to formally state that Doctor Who and Guardians of the Galaxy star Karen Gillan is the latest recruit.
Once again, there’s no official name being stated for the characters being played by the cast thus far, though there’s a lot of immediate speculation that Gillan could be playing ‘Heather’ (the role originated by Beatie Edney in the original) who was Connor MacLeod’s first love and who stayed with him after he became Immortal until her death. Though Highlander‘s very title sees it rooted in the mythology of Scotland, Gillan would actually be the first of the announced reboot cast to be a native Scot. Of course, that’s hardly been a necessity with the franchise. Christopher Lambert is French, Sean Connery (a Scot, was playing the Egyptian/’Spanish Peacock’ Ramirez) and Edney is English.
The announced cast, so far, sees Henry Cavill, Russell Crowe, Gillan’s Guardians… co-star Dave Bautista and Marisa Abela involved in the classic story of the battle between Immortals, foundlings whose immortality is triggered by their first ‘death’ and who, legend says, must battle down through the centuries until only one is left who will receive the ‘Prize’. There have been five feature films so far, two live-action spin-off television shows and animation outings, but the current reboot has been in the works in one shape or another for over a decade, though there appears to now be a September/October start for lensing the film for a possible 2026 or 2027 release.
