Highlander: The Series, Highlander IV, Highlander V, Spin-offs, Anime & Future
Highlander: The Series
I didn’t really watch the series beyond the pilot episode. Basically the backstory is that the clan MacLeod ended up having another immortal Macleod 2 generations after Connor’s time with the clan named Duncan. Of course, being the good immortal swordsman he is, Connor took a liking to his kinsman Duncan and trained him in the same way way that Sean Connery’s character did in the first movie. The reason for Duncan not being a part of the events of the first movie is that Duncan simply didn’t want to play The Game and stayed hidden away….sorta like he said “I don’t want to play” and no one looked for him. Again, this sorta makes the end of Highlander pointless, but they had to somehow make the TV show work. Anyway, much like The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ infinite number of Terminators, Highlanders were all over the place in the TV show. Christopher Lambert only showed up in the pilot episode to pass the torch, but the series is reportedly watchable by 90s TV standards, which was a breath of life after 2 horrible sequels. The show lasted 6 seasons….then this happened:
Highlander IV: Endgame
Remember when Star Trek had Kirk meet Picard in Star Trek Generations? The Highlander Franchise decided to do that in Highlander Endgame by making a movie involving Duncan and Connor MacLeod.
Immediately, I feel I should have watched more of the Highlander TV show other than the pilot episode, because there’s LOTS of nods and elements to the show. So naturally, the existence of the watchers (did Fringe rip them off?) and a lot of other crap really confused me. But one thing that really grinds my gears, is that it was described as a Connor MacLeod movie; when in reality the movie was more of a Duncan MacLeod movie. The plot is still fragmented but the general idea is that an immortal ex-priest named Jacob Kell is basically making Connor MacLeod’s life a living Hell by killing the ones closest to him, including Racheal (the little girl from WWII that Connor saved and raised as his own daughter).
This movie would have been an epic series finale for the TV show, but as a movie, it feels like it should have been direct-to-video, even though it had OK production values. But I guess my real gripe here is that it had a lot of potential, but instead of a great merging between the TV show and the Movies, Connor spends most of the movie in a morose state and Duncan seems too much of a TV lead rather than someone to carry the movie. Also like III’s love story, Duncan’s romantic issues are boring and too much time is spent exploring that. The only awesome part in the entire movie was the fight between Duncan and Connor!…YES THEY TOTALLY FIGHT!!! Basically, Connor realizes that neither of them can beat Kell on their own and one of them must kill the other in order to have enough power to defeat Kell. That was pretty heavy shit since either the movie MacLeod or the TV MacLeod will have to die! Unfortunately, it’s the better actor, movie MacLeod that is killed and we’re stuck with Duncan. But if there’s any sort of consolation in this movie it’s this: By killing off Connor, Highlander II officially “never happened”….too bad the movie wasn’t awesome….the trailer was cooler.
The Other Stuff
Despite killing off the man who started the franchise in Highlander: Endgame, much like the Highlanders, the franchise simply won’t die! Here’s some of the other stuff that happened that I didn’t have it in me to personally check out for this:
Highlander V: The Source- Duncan MacLeod and some fellow Highlanders look for “the Source” (of immortality)…It was a “Duncan film” so I don’t care to see it.
Highlander: The Raven- Spinoff of the TV series, but with a girl as a Highlander….better not piss her off or she’ll take off your head!
Highlander: The Animated Series- Yet another MacLeod joins “the game”. (clearly there’s something up with that clan having a knack for producing immortals)
Highlander: Spirit of Vengeance- Highlander gets the anime treatment….with yet another MacLeod!!!
Highlander: The Reboot!!- Quite possibly the first Highlander movie to be excited about since the original!!! It’ll be penned by people involved with Iron Man!!!! It’ll be directed by the person that did the last 3 Fast & Furious movies…………shit! We’re screwed!
Well, I hope this was a lot of fun to read, I obviously had a lot of fun writing it. In all honesty, do yourself a favor and watch the original movie if you haven’t done so already, but again I urge you to stay well away from the sequels!!! Now if you excuse me I think I earned myself a “Highlander Break”.