The time for the Willow The Disney+ series is just around the corner. Days prior to the series’ streaming premiere on November 30, two of the show’s cast members, Ruby Cruz and Dempsey Bricksat down for an interview with Screen Rant. The two respectively play twins Kit and Airk, the children of Madmaritgan (Val Kilmer) and Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) from the original 1988 film.
“For Dempsey and I, it was definitely a very instant twin energy. It really didn’t take much work, honestly. We met on a FaceTime that was very much, ‘I see you. You see me.’ And then we just started hanging out. It really worked for us. It was really easy,” Cruz said.
When working with creator Jonathan Kasdan, Bryk said what was really beautiful was that as a writer he was doing something that he thinks is totally normal. That’s creating these three-dimensional characters that contradict themselves and confuse themselves. He also said that there were times when Kasdan would just come up to you, say one sentence, and everything would make sense.
“Yeah. And he worked so well together. Yeah, he wrote the show, he’s an executive producer on the show. He was also the showrunner. But he was also just there during filming to have conversations about what these characters were going through on a deeper level. He was so helpful because he really knew this world inside and out. And he did such an amazing job of creating characters who have separate whole worlds behind them and all come together and then experience this. He’s a great talent.’
The characters and their relationships
The dynamic between the two characters is that while Kit is the fighter, Airk is the romantic. When Airk is kidnapped by the forces of darkness, it is Kit who leads the party to rescue him. In addition to the titular wizard, Jade (Erin Kellyman), an aspiring knight, is one of the people who accompany Kit on this quest. When talking about Jade and Kit’s relationship, Cruz teased something very special.
“I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. I think their relationship is very special. I want people to get to know them organically and authentically and understand why they mean so much to each other. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’m certainly excited for people to to get to know.”
Additionally, Airk’s status as a romantic is related to something Bryk brought to the character, but wasn’t necessarily in the scripts. Bryk said that with someone who has many different romantic relationships, with what’s on the page, he could be real or just a player.
“And I thought it was really important that he’s really sincere. He falls in love because it’s his inclination, but also because he has to. So that’s what I wanted to add,” Bryk said.
What would it have been like to have been raised by Madmartigan and Sorsha? That’s a question Cruz asked during the interview. Before that, Bryk also said that an interesting aspect of Kit and Airk was the things they took from their parents and rejected. Both actors incorporated elements of Sorsha and Madmartigan into their performances.
And also a little hint: there are some Easter eggs of some very specific things within fighting [styles] that I wanted, and that the stunt team wanted to do. There might be an Easter egg or a reference to Madmartigan stuff.”