After a great deal of time in development hell, the big-screen Highlander reboot is certainly gathering pace. After the formal announcements of Henry Cavill and Russell Crowe (expected, though technically not officially confirmed to be playing Connor MacLeod and mentor, Juan Sánchez Villalobos Ramírez, respectively), comes news that Marisa Abela has been cast in a prominent part. If following the original film’s main beats and characters, Abela could be in the role of either Heather (essayed in the original by Beatie Edney) or historian Brenda Wyatt (originally Roxanne Hart) though some sites have suggested the character could be a ‘former lover and fellow Immortal. However, it is known that the reboot – with Chad Stahelski directing and Michael Finch penning the latest version of the screenplay – may well seek to incorporate and rearrange different parts of the Highlander mythology that evolved over the five feature films and the popular television series (that ran for six seasons), so there is always the possibility that we’ll see characters brought in from those offshoots for this film or any potential sequels.
Abela is significant casting – she is an actor definitely making her mark. She played the main role in Back to Black, the biopic of tragic singer Amy Winehouse and that earned her a nomination for a BAFTA EE Rising Star Award. Recently, she won a 2025 BAFTA TV Award for her role in the third season of the acclaimed banking drama Industry, and she got good reviews appearing alongside prominent names such as Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett in Steven Soderbergh’s espionage thriller, Black Bag.
