TV Talk: ‘Willow’ returns as Disney+ fantasy series
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In the ongoing quest to revive and dump everything-and-the-kitchen-sink onto streaming platforms, Disney+ introduces “Willow,” a series follow-up to the 1988 fantasy film about young farmer Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) who is tasked with protecting the baby Elora Danan from evil queen Bavmorda.
At the time, “Willow” was a modest success, a “Lord of the Rings”-style fantasy in an era when that style of filmed entertainment was not as omnipresent as it is in 2022. “Willow” certainly had its fans, but it was a lower-tier Lucasfilm entry surpassing only “Howard the Duck” in that period.
“Willow” was not deemed enough of a hit in the late 1980s to warrant a movie sequel, but the bar is much lower in the current streaming era (see also: Peacock’s “Pitch Perfect” series “Bumper in Berlin”).
The new “Willow” series, now streaming, is definitely the kid-friendliest of this year’s fantasy epics (Amazon Prime Video’s “Lord of the Rings: Power of the Rings” comes in second, “House of the Dragon” is too violent to even be considered). But “Willow” is also the 2022 fantasy series most likely to bore adults who have seen this slow-slog storytelling plenty of times before.
Most egregiously, the first episode withholds the return of the title character, again played by Davis, until the episode’s closing moments, leaving fans to watch and wonder, who are all these kids and where is the star of the show?
On the flip side, “Willow” reveals the identity of the grown-up Elora Danan by the end of the first episode, rather than allowing the mystery to play out and breathe.
So, yeah, the new “Willow” feels a little fan-fiction-y. Some will surely lap it up, but I can’t imagine this series, despite its big budget, registering in the pop culture zeitgeist in the same way “Star Wars” and Marvel shows on Disney+ sometimes do.
During a recent virtual press conference for “Willow,” writer/executive producer Jon Kasdan said the idea for a series began on the set of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” with conversations between Kasdan and “Willow” movie director Ron Howard, who also directed “Solo.”
“One thing we always knew was at the core of it was, what became of Elora Danan?” Kasdan said. “The movie ended with a sort of bittersweet moment of Warwick kissing this baby and then saying, ‘Okay, goodbye, I’ll never see you again.’ And as an 8-year old I was sort of like, you mean, they’re not going to live together and they’re not going to have a life together? And how is she going to find out about all this stuff that happened to her? And that felt like a great jumping off place for a series.”
In addition to Davis, Joanne Whalley reprises her role as Sorsha, who is now queen of Andowyne. But Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan, though referenced A LOT, is not in the series. Kasdan had hoped Kilmer would return but due to Kilmer’s health issues and production mid-pandemic, Kilmer was not available.
“Because we were telling a story that had so many young characters and they were all searching for their identity, the search for Madmartigan, and the question of what had happened to him, was right at the heart of the story we were telling,” Kasdan said. “We knew that it would be woven into this quest in a fundamental way. … We always knew that we wanted to pay it off in one way or another, and we had a lot of ideas about ways to pay it off and ways to leave it open. And one thing that happened, because Val himself wasn’t able to come out to Wales and work with us, was that we added this texture of a friend of Madmartigan’s, who could give us some clues about his whereabouts.”
Kasdan holds out hope for a second season of “Willow” that could include the return of Kilmer as Madmartigan.
“Madmartigan is still out there,” Kasdan said. “I have had many conversations with everyone involved, and our feeling is he is out there to be found, should the day arrive. And I think Warwick and I would both love to see him pick up that sword again.”
Channel surfing
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” ends the year with Keke Palmer hosting this weekend with musical guest SZA; Steve Martin and Martin Short host Dec. 10 with Brandi Carlile and Austin Butler hosts Dec. 17 with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. … PBS’s “Miss Scarlet and the Duke,” which returns for its third season at 8 p.m. Jan. 8, has begun production on a fourth season. … Hulu renewed “Tell Me Lies” for a second season.