Henry Cavill shares cryptic poem after sustaining leg injury that pushed Highlander filming

Cavill posted on Instagram one week after reports emerged that he sustained an injury while training for the ‘Highlander’ remake

Henry Cavill has shared photos from recovery after sustaining an injury that has delayed filming on the Highlander remake.

Last week, Deadline reported that Cavill had been injured, requiring production to likely be delayed for at least a year. While the nature of the injury was not revealed at the time, the Man of Steel actor has since shared two photos on Instagram, with one showing his leg elevated as his foot was wrapped in gauze.

Cavill captioned the post as he wrote out the entire Invictus poem, written by 19th-century English writer William Ernest Henry.

“Out of the night that covers me / Black as the pit from pole to pole / I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul,” the poem’s first stanza began.

Henry’s poetry career first began when he was 12 years old and was diagnosed with tubercular arthritis, which progressed far enough to require the amputation of one of his legs below the knee.

Cavill captioned his Instagram post on Friday with 19th-century English writer William Ernest Henry’s poem ‘Invictus’ (Getty Images)

While healing from the amputation in the infirmary, he went on to write Invictus and other poems that reflect themes of inner strength and perseverance.

While the nature and extent of his injury remain unknown, many people commented on Cavill’s post to express their well-wishes, hoping he would heal soon.

The new Highlander film is set to be helmed by John Wick director Chad Stahelski and will also star Russell Crowe, Marisa Abela, Karen Gillan, Djimon Hounsou, Dave Bautista, and Max Zhang in addition to Cavill.

The original Highlander film was released in 1986 and starred Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery. The franchise spawned four films, two live-action TV series, and a series of original novels.

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The remake has been in the works since as early as 2008, with Stahelski coming on board in 2016 and Cavill attached since 2021.

In 2023, Stahelski told the Happy Sad Confused podcast: “I think we have some very good elements now. The trick is when you have the tagline: ‘There can only be one’, you just can’t kill everybody the first time.

“I’ll say it for you first, our story engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that, but we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows, and we’re trying to do a bit of a prequel, a set-up to The Gathering [a 1992 episode of the series], so we have room to grow the property.”

Stahelski compared it to John Wick, which he says he’d never intended to turn into a franchise and would only continue with a strong enough idea.

“Highlander, I can tell you right now… if we got our s**t together and we pull off the feature, we have ideas for days about how to make the coolest characters and to make that an epic TV show.

“I just think that’s a rich, rich, rich, rich mythology. When you can pick any period in time, any nationality, any culture, any type of person and make them an immortal, then have to duel and deal with the burden of immortality, that’s f***ing cool to me.”