Highlander: Endgame - Production

Production

Early drafts of the screenplay differed greatly from the final cut in several respects. The Kate character was originally named "Alexis"; most of the flashback scenes occurred in Shanghai instead of Ireland; Paris was the original location of Methos's home rather than London; Duncan MacLeod lived on his Parisian barge during the modern-day sequences; and Hugh Fitzcairn appeared during the Shanghai flashbacks. The titles of the various drafts included Highlander IV: The Immortals, Highlander: The Search for Connor, and Highlander: World Without End. Gregory Widen, writer of the original Highlander, worked on the early drafts and was in talks to direct the film. Widen had previously directed the film The Prophecy, which he also wrote. Portions of Widen's writing were used for Endgame, though he received only a "Characters Created By" credit.

Billy Idol, David Bowie and Jean Claude Van Damme were considered for the role of Jacob Kell.

Lucy Lawless and Juliet Landau were considered for the role of Kate/Faith.

The film features several shots from the original Highlander. The first is a computer-altered and enhanced shot of Glenfinnan, which was originally the shot of Connor walking away from his village. The second is a shot of the Silvercup sign, pulled from the scene of the Kurgan taking Brenda to the building. And in the rooftop Quickening, two shots of Connor and Heather together are taken from the first film. Castle Stalker is seen briefly in the film during Connor's flashback scene. This building was also seen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Donnie Yen served as the film's martial arts choreographer and also played the role of Jin Ke, who was based on a real historical figure: Jing Ke, renowned for his failed assassination of the Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang. Hip-Hop producer Damon Dash makes an appearance as one of Jacob Kell's Immortal minions. Professional wrestler Adam Copeland, known as "Edge" in the World Wrestling Federation, makes a cameo appearance as Lachlan. A reference is made to Copeland's wrestling persona when Duncan says to Lachlan, "Looks like you've lost your edge, lad."

The movie was meant to act as a bridge between the Highlander television series and the spin-off series Highlander:The Raven that was continuing on TV back in 1999. But these plans started to go awry when "Raven" was cancelled due to low ratings and the change in syndication as well as production delays started occurring due to cast availability problems. Dimension Films, which took on the project as a way of invigorating the franchise, realized that its plans for the film were not going to meet expectations and scaled back on its release.

Filming began on October 22, 1999 and ended on March 7, 2000. Much of the bulk of filming happened in Romania which was opposed by the producers.

Endgame's theatrical distributor, Dimension Films, demanded that cuts be made to the film to give it a faster pace. The deleted footage contained exposition necessary to understanding the Highlander universe, resulting in a theatrical cut that was criticized for being incomprehensible to audiences unfamiliar with the franchise. An extended cut with restored footage was later released on DVD. (See alternate versions below.)