When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, it acquired more than just Star Wars. The company also famously produced films like the Indiana Jones series and the stand-alone fantasy epic Willow.
With the launch of Disney+ and its rush to fill its menu with high profile original TV shows, it looks as though the company is looking to bring Willow back. And according to screenwriter Jon Kasdan, work has officially begun.
In a Tweet, Kasdan announced that “the office is open,” along with a picture of a hat featuring the film’s titular character.
https://twitter.com/JonKasdan/status/1214301547695226881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The cryptic tweet seems to indicate that Disney has begun work on the long-rumored revival of the project. It looks as though Kasdan has opened a writer’s room for the series, an early step in coming up with a story and individual episodes. According to reports, the series will be a continuation of the original story, rather than an outright remake or reboot. Last month, the LA Times (via Bleeding Cool) reported that Kasdan had completed the script for the pilot episode.
Buy the Book
Come Tumbling Down
The original 1988 film followed a young sorcerer named Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis), who rescued an infant girl named Elora Danan from an evil sorceress. Along with a warrior named Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), they overthrow the queen and bring peace to their land. In the years since, Lucasfilm has expanded the world a bit, producing a trilogy of novels written by Chris Claremont, Shadow Moon, Shadow Dawn, and Shadow Star, which take the franchise in a darker direction.
Kasdan worked with director Ron Howard on Solo: A Star Wars story, and in 2019, Howard indicated that he was involved in discussions with Disney about creating a series based on the film for the streaming platform.
A series makes sense for Disney+, which launched back in November with an original, live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, with a number of other original shows and films set to arrive in the coming month.
This may or may not come to anything very much at all, but one would be lying if the prospect of seeing Mr Warwick Davis as a more experienced Wizard Family Man did not warm the cockles of my heart more than a little! (In all honesty a ’30 Years Later’ story might actually be an interesting angle from which to approach Ye Olde Fantasy Epic – what do Our Heroes do with themselves long after the Evil Overlord has been brought down?).
Between the film and Chris Claremont’s trilogy, the writers have a lot to play with, looking forwards to this.
So are they going to stick with the Claremont books, really? Where we start with “Hey kids, what if everyone from that movie you liked DIED except for Willow, and he abandoned his family and took on a METAL new name?” Cause I kind of thought we had collectively agreed to forget that ever happened.
If Warwick Davis gets a paycheque out of this, I’m all for it.
@1, surely you jest. Encounter another Evil Overload, obviously. (Oops. Meant “overlord”, but this has potential.)
Currently, Mike Nelson and Conor Lastowka are dismantling Shadow Moon on their podcast 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back. I hope the showrunners won’t dip into that brackish lake for inspiration. It’s a truly terrible series of books.
@@.-@. Hopefully, Disney will save the Evil Overload for the next Tron installment.
@3. Oh gee, I really hope not. While I did finish the Chris Claremont books, I had a hard time getting past deaths of so many characters from the movie. I almost tossed the first book aside right then.
I approve only if Val Kilmer appears.
@7. Skallagrimsen, the thought of Madmartigan in the role of Falstaff-as-played-by-Val Kilmer seems delightfully apt!
@@.-@.cecrow, I NEVER jest (I do, on the other hand, suffer Delusions of Humour with startling frequency). (-;
Maybe the companies making these nostalgic reboots should listen to Kylo Ren’s advice about the past…
I want Peter Dinklage as an action/ass-kicking romantic lead.
Heck yeah! I happen to love the movie Wilow! One of my favorites of all time! Waited 30 years! Been waiting for years for a Thundercats movie but that’s not gonna happen. So rock on Willow!
Willow:)