The long wait for the return of Willow is over, as the franchise is back on Disney+ with a new series. Today marks the premiere date of Willow on Disney+, and to celebrate the first two episodes are now available on launch day to stream. Warwick Davis returns as the sorcerer Willow Ufgood, and he's joined by a new band of heroes who are out to protect Andowyne from a growing threat. The latest Lucasfilm project debuts just as the Star Wars series Andor is finishing up its first season, with a second season already greenlit. Fans have already hopped on social media to share their instant reactions to Willow's premiere.
ComicBook.com's Joe Schmidt reviewed Willow, giving it 3 out of 5 stars: "That said, Willow has its disappointments, though it is nice to see Disney+ put an effort into high-concept fantasy beyond the realm of Star Wars and Marvel. The pilot is very clunky and it's not clear if it's the victim of bad editing, or a troubled production (during which multiple directors joined and exited the project), or VFX issues, though it is likely a combination of all three. The characters and the acting are all on point, but there are some moments where the quick pace is disjointed by cuts that don't feel natural or fluid."
Showrunner Jonathan Kasdan also 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."
Willow is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes will debut every Wednesday.