Willow Showrunner Jon Kasdan Reveals the Fantasy Projects That Inspired Disney+ Sequel
Willow was released back in 1988 and starred Warwick Davis in the titular role. The movie was helmed by Ron Howard, and now a new series is coming to Disney+ with Davis returning. Howard is serving as an executive producer on the project, which has multiple directors. Solo: A Star Wars Story writer Jonathan Kasdan served as the new show's showrunner, and he recently spoke with ComicBook.com's Chris Killian about the fantasy projects that helped influence this new version of Willow.
"Well, when you asked that question, the first thing that pops into my head is The Neverending Story, because visually it was so inspiring," Kasdan explained. "It's funny, I was revisiting it not long ago, and I am still sort of baffled by how it was even achieved. The environments all feel totally real, the spaces are huge and just expansive. In a way that, like Willow a little bit, has a slightly scary quality because the world of it was so big. You kind of didn't understand, like, 'Well, how is this... Did they go film on location in another universe or fantasy place?' You know? Particularly those ariel shots of Atreyu sort of racing across these planes. I was always a little freaked out by that."
Kasdan continued, "But the other thing we talked about a ton while making the show was The Nothing, and the sort of cloud-tank technology that was used to create this sort of amorphous, monstrous eating entity that was coming to destroy the world. So that was very central to what we did, and at the end of the first episode when Warick sort of says, 'You're the only thing in the world that can stop this force that's coming to destroy us all,' I always think of The Nothing. And that's really at the core of it. But all those movies that really used a certain amount of reality and grit. Ladyhawke comes to mind ... Legend comes to mind, because of how scary Tim Curry was and how sexy Mia Sara was. There was just elements of all those movies that really spoke to me. James Earl Jones' performance in Conan the Barbian is terrifying. And this imagery of snakes and occult, sort of believers, was always right at the core of what we're doing. So, I guess the best answer to your questions is, we stole from everything."
Who Stars in Willow?
In addition to Davis, Willow also stars Christian Slater, Ellie Bamber, Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Tony Revolori, Amar Chadha-Patel, Dempsey Bryk, and Joanne Whalley. Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Jonathan Kasdan, Tommy Harper, Wendy Mericle, Roopesh Parekh, Ron Howard, and Samie Kim Falvey serve as executive producers. Writers are John Bickerstaff, Hannah Friedman, and Jonathan Kasdan. The producers are Stephen Woolfenden, Julia Cooperman, Hameed Shaukat, and Max Taylor.
The Willow series arrives on Disney+ on November 30th.