“Willow” was one of the biggest (and best) streaming surprises of the year.
A sequel series to warmly recall the 1988 Ron Howard fantasy film (also known as “Willow”), this new iteration was developed by Jonathan Kasdan, who worked on 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story”. Howard (and Lucasfilm) and is, to put it mildly, a “Willow” super-fan.
Part of what made the show so fun was that it didn’t rely on an encyclopedic knowledge of the film’s mythological underpinnings and never relied heavily on lore. Instead, all viewers needed to know (or remember) was that Willow (played once again by Warwick Davis) was a young wizard tasked with protecting a child from the forces of evil. Now Willow is an older sorceress and the little girl has grown into a grown woman (played by English actress Ellie Bamber). Other characters may have ties to characters in the film, but everything is explained cleanly and is always exciting.
But the question remains: will ‘Willow’ return for a second season?
TheWrap spoke to Kasdan about his plans for the future of “Willow” and whether he knows if the show is coming back. Just a word of warning – it gets into the nitty gritty so consider it massive spoiler alert,
Every episode of “Willow” begins with the opening of a book and a new chapter title reveal (this last chapter is called “Children of the Wyrm”). During the closing credits of the final episode, the shot cuts back to the book, which is now being closed. It is placed on a shelf and the spine reads “Volume I” – among others. “Volume II” and “Volume III” are clearly visible. This suggests two more seasons of the show. or does
“To be honest, I have no idea. These shows take so long to make. And especially in the machinery of a company like Lucasfilm, the attitude I’ve been presented with is, “Get the typing kid and If it’s not happening, we’ll let you know,” Kasdan explained. “I’m moving forward with gusto and enthusiasm. We definitely have stories we’d love to tell and we think there’s a shot.
Nevertheless, Kasdan insisted that the mid-credits scene “wasn’t any kind of tease.”
“My personality comes from movies and for me, that three-act structure is so deeply tied to who I am, that when we got to the end of this season, it really felt like it was the first act of a movie.” Kasdan explained. “My expectation as a viewer and as a fan is that when stories begin, the narrator or writer has some intention of where they might end and not the expectation that they go on forever. so that they can keep adding to their home. My intention with this and as a fan at first was that we were going to tell a story and it was going to be a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. And if It ended after one season, so neither of us wanted to do that.
Part of what made these final moments of “Willow” extra powerful was the fist-pumping needle-drop, which bucked the season’s trend toward modern covers of ’80s classics and instead went with the real thing: Dior. The Straits’ 1985 single “Money for Nothing”.
“I knew it was going to happen [the most] Controversial fall of the season,” Kasdan said. They actually tried other songs for the sequence but none of them had the elemental power of the Dire Straits track. (And yes, they even considered having a modern band cover the song.) “It wasn’t that powerful. It hits you deep in your stomach somehow,” Kasdan explained. “And we were definitely the overriding thing.”
The other thing that made the tune stand out were the lyrics (and, no, not the gross homophobic ones, which have mercifully been omitted from the “Willow” drop) and how those lyrics relate to the show’s themes. “If you read anything about the song it was born out of [Mark Knopfler] Overhearing some people talking in an electronics store. And the theme of it that has always been with me and has been relevant to me is the idea of seeking rewards without work, and that giving you a shortcut to the happiness you seek. It feels in sync with the promise of the Wyrm and this force, which is an antidote to all the responsibility and heaviness that comes with being a hero. So it landed there.
And it really gave you a great note to end on, literally, something Kasdan was keenly aware of, especially if the show returns for future (now promised) “volumes.” “The sensation that no other song or drop was repeated exactly [it] Keep the foot off the pedal as much as possible,” Kasdan said.
As that guitar breaks, the camera pans out and we get a look at one of the most iconic creatures from the first film: the two-headed dragon known as Aborsisk (original designer and genius stop-motion animator Phil Tippett for Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel). Along with Rancor (another Tippett creation) from “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi”, the dragon is one of Kasdan’s favorite creatures. It also, once again, serves as a tease for what is to come. “We wanted to touch on it. But we knew it wasn’t rooted in the story we were telling this season. But it was rooted in the promise of ‘Willow’ as a world,” Kasdan said. “We wanted to seed it there in a way that promised that there is a bestiary of creatures out there and some are in the service of the dark and some are in the service of the light.”
One question still pending, going into the second volume (fingers crossed) is the whereabouts of Val Kilmer’s character Madmartigan and whether or not he’ll appear in future installments. (Wilmer was scheduled to be part of the season, but could not travel overseas to where the show was filming; his son Jack provides the voice of MadMartigan on the show.) “My hope and I think it Might be something people are speculating to get to here, but I think it’s more specific than that. Madmartigan is trapped in the dark realm of the Wyrm, where the series ends, two Full of creatures like the headed dragon and other demonic forces.
“She’s where she is – she’s out there somewhere, down in that world. And whether or not we’ll find her… It’s not even an open question, to be honest. I know the answer,” Kasdan teases. “With MadMartigan there is a promise of more; His influence in this world is so great that we cannot leave him where we left him. His story is not over. In other words: pray for “Volume II”.
