1988’s Willow was a dark fantasy adventure dreamt up by a young George Lucas in 1972 before he ever put pen to paper for Star Wars. In 1986, the project began to come together with director Ron Howard, writer Bob Dolman and Lucas developing the script. Somewhere along the way, likely due to Dolman’s comedic chops, Willow became a far funnier fantasy film than contemporaries such as Kull and Labyrinth. Though it wasn’t a critical success, Willow developed a cult following and a fanbase that clamored for a sequel for over 30 years. That sequel will soon debut on Disney Plus and according to one of its stars, the spirit of the original lives on in the streaming series.
During the global press conference for the upcoming streaming series, Warwick Davis, who reprises his role as Willow Ufgood, writer Jon Kasdan was able to embue Willow with the same sense of humor as the original.
It’s important that we took that kind of ethos from the film, the humor, because that’s what really set ‘Willow’ apart from the other fantasy offerings of the 80s, was that it could look at itself and laugh and not take itself seriously. But also, as well as being a great kind of fantasy writer and sci-fi writer, Jon is also a very good comic writer as well.
Warwick Davis
While the 1988 film certainly wasn’t a full-on slapstick comedy, it was filled with laughs, often at the expense of Willow’s struggles with magic. In an attempt to recapture that magic, Dolman returned to write two episodes of the upcoming streaming series. Unfortunately, another source of comedic relief, Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan, is mysteriously absent from the series, though his presence is certainly felt throughout. The series is certainly much more light-hearted in tone than what fans have come accustomed to seeing in recent fantasy series such as Game of Thrones and The Rings of Power while still finding a nice balance of action as fans will find out for themselves when it begins streaming on Disney Plus on November 30th.
