See Chris Evans Replace Henry Cavill As The Highlander

Fan art shows what Chris Evans would look like taking over as the Highlander from Henry Cavill.

By Jessica Scott | Updated

According to Giant Freakin Robot’s trusted and proven sources, Chris Evans is potentially replacing Henry Cavill in the so-far ill-fated Highlander reboot. You can see a preview of what this would look like in a recent GFR Instagram post, which features fan art of Chris Evans looking majestic with long hair and a furry, Highlander-esque outfit with his trademark Captain America stars.

At the moment, it is unclear if this movie is ever going to happen or not (or if it is instead going to be a Highlander series instead). But according to sources, Chris Evans may be taking over after Henry Cavill was unceremoniously dropped from the Highlander project.

Up until now, replacement talks have revolved around one of the Hemsworths taking over the as-yet-unnamed Highlander role. While Liam Hemsworth has taken over The Witcher role, Chris Hemsworth was rumored to be taking over the Highlander role. But as of yesterday, it seems as if Chris Evans is the frontrunner to play this new Highlander character instead of Henry Cavill… if the movie ever gets made.

There are some potential issues with Chris Evans replacing Henry Cavill as the Highlander, however. For one thing, Chris Evans is very American – he is Captain America, after all. He has not been in any notable roles in which he speaks with any other accent other than his typical American one (he’s from Boston, in case you were curious), and Highlander calls for not just a Scottish accent but an old-fashioned, historically accurate, one

However, according to his IMDb biography, Chris Evans has one thing that Henry Cavill does not: partial Scottish ancestry. According to the movie database, his father, G. Robert Evans III, has half-German, half “Welsh/English/Scottish” ancestry. So, maybe he has a bit of Highlander in him after all!

Highlander

Still, though, Chris Evans, unlike Henry Cavill, has also not done a lot of swordplay in his career, making him a bit of an odd choice for a sword-wielding, mythological Highlander. Henry Cavill, on the other hand, has become very adept at swinging a sword and embodying characters in period pieces, and he has mastered different dialects and accents as well. 

Chris Evans is no stranger to playing an action hero role, however, something he has in common with Henry Cavill outside of their Highlander connection. They have both played superheroes in some of the biggest movie franchises in recent history. Chris Evans played Marvel’s Captain America in numerous films, and Henry Cavill famously played Superman in DC’s Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League films. 

With the fan art shared on Instagram, it is easier to imagine Chris Evans replacing Henry Cavill as the Highlander… even if we never would have expected the former to have such long and luxurious locks. It may seem like an odd match at first, but maybe Chris Evans will surprise us and be a terrific Highlander. 

Regardless, it seems like this project is kind of cursed for the moment, with numerous changes and setbacks being reported. So maybe in the end, the Highlander reboot won’t see either Chris Evans or Henry Cavill take up the mantle of Highlander: maybe there really can only be one, and that one is Christopher Lambert.