10 Times Movie Sequels Abandoned Major Storylines

There are few movie sequels that retconned their predecessor as brazenly as Highlander II: The Quickening.

The original fantasy blockbuster centres around a medieval swordsman, Connor, who discovers he's immortal. His mentor, Ramirez, tells Connor that an evil immortal called The Kurgan is preparing to kill their kind to absorb their power.

Although The Kurgan slaughters Ramirez, Connor defeats him centuries later, avenging his tutor. With The Kurgan dead, Connor is the only immortal left on Earth, claiming the power of the others.

But for some reason, Highlander II chucked this entire story aside, rebranding Connor as an alien from the planet Zeist. Also, Ramirez is alive again... and he's a wizard now.

The Quickening has so little connection with the first Highlander, you wonder why the filmmakers didn't turn it into a separate story. Even though the director's cut tried to remedy this issue by removing all references to Zeist, it made the story impossible to follow.

Luckily, Highlander III: The Sorcerer carried on directly from the original, contradicting everything that happened in the previous instalment.