This seems almost like typecasting, but WWE’s Drew McIntyre is the latest name attached to the upcoming Highlander reboot from John Wick director/producer Chad Stahlenski.
His remake of the 1986 action-fantasy classic will star Henry Cavill in the title role as the (mostly) immortal Connor MacLeod, and WWE Hall of Famer-in-waiting Dave Bautista as his nemesis, The Kurgan. The original movie spawned several sequels and a long-running syndicated television series, and the new version had been kicked around Hollywood for almost 20 years before finally starting to pick up speed this year when Russell Crowe was cast in the Ramirez role made famous by Sean Connery, and Bautista as a fellow immortal and the film’s villain. The start of production has been delayed by an injury Cavill suffered in training, but is expected to happen in early 2026.
When that happens, McIntyre will play Angus MacLeod. If you weren’t a young nerd in the 80s like yours truly, or just generally aren’t familiar with the OG Highlander, Angus was a cousin of Connor’s who played a small but key role in the film’s flashback scenes to the 16th century Scottish Highlands. Deadline brought news of Drew’s casting, and says that Angus is Connor’s brother in the reboot script written by Michael Finch, so it’s possible the part is beefed up in the new version.
No matter how much screen time and dialogue he ends up with, this is likely to be the highest profile acting job for the former WWE champ to date. It re-teams him with Bautista and Stahlenski’s 87Eleven Entertainment stunt team, who were also part of his debut film, The Killer’s Game. Big Dave revealed to Chris Van Vliet last year that he turned that film’s director, JJ Perry, on to Big Drew:
“I was having a conversation with [director JJ Perry] and he said ‘I need a great big guy who’s almost intimidating to you, a guy who’d be bigger than you, and I also need him to be able to pull off a Scottish accent. Do you know anybody?’ I was like ‘Man, I’ve got the perfect guy.’”
And McIntyre told the Nerd Reactor podcast that Baustita mentored him on The Killer’s Game set just as he once had in WWE:
“I was just picked up from Scotland in college and dropped down and he was there, you know, as a friend and mentor and it’s interesting to fast-forward so many years. The success he’s had in the entertainment world in Hollywood and now, he’s doing the exact same. He’s helping guide me along. Mentoring me once again and the experience on the movie, it was just, yeah, unreal. It’s crazy what WWE prepares you for. It really prepares you for it feels like anything in life. But specifically, this world, I was so nervous. Dave calmed my nerves and that red light went on. I just relaxed again.”
We were already excited for the Highlander reboot (and not entirely because we want to see if they recreate the original’s Madison Square Garden pro wrestling scene, and who gets the fleeting cameo spots Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, Sam Fatu, Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts got). The McIntyre/Batista connection just makes us even more excited.
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