After adding a handful of cast members last year, Lucasfilm’s upcoming Willow series has found its lead: Ruby Cruz, who starred in Hulu’s Stephen King-inspired series Castle Rock.
According to Deadline, Cruz will replace one of the actresses already cast in the series: Cailee Spaeny, who seems to have left the project “after an extensive recasting process.”
The series is set years after the original 1988 film, in which a young sorcerer named Willow Ufgood (played by Warwick Davis) rescues an infant from an evil sorceress. Aided by a warrior named Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), he helps overthrow the queen and fulfill a long-standing prophecy.
Cruz will play Kit, a young princess whose twin brother is kidnapped, and who is “destined to be a leader and ultimately the queen.” She’ll apparently be aided by a group of fellow adventurers who’ll help her on her quest.
The series is slated to enter production later this year in Wales. Jon M. Chu was originally tapped to direct, but stepped away after revealing that his family was expecting a baby. He’s since been replaced by Jonathan Entwhistle.
There’s no word on when the series will debut on Disney+, but it’s part of a larger effort on the part of the studio to expand its library of original content to the streaming service. It joins the studio’s slate of upcoming shows, from a flood of Star Wars projects and various Marvel announcements, to an adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone, among others.
