Willow: Who Does Christian Slater Play in the Disney+ Series?

12/28/2022 03:11 pm EST

Last week's episode of Disney+'s Willow saw the return of a fan-favorite character from the 1988 film of the same name, and today's episode featured a long-awaited franchise newcomer. It was announced at D23 back in September that Christian Slater would be joining the series, and many have wondered who he would be playing. In fact, some have suspected that he could be taking over the role of Madmartigan. Sadly, the new series doesn't feature Val Kilmer in the fan-favorite role, but his presence is felt throughout the show. In "Prisoners of Skellin," Slater actually introduces himself as Madmartigan, but he's not actually playing Kilmer's role. Warning: Spoilers Ahead!

In the episode, Madmartigan's daughter Kit (Ruby Cruz) and his old pal Willow (Warwick Davis) find themselves captured and taken to an underground mine prison where they encounter Slater's character who says he's been incarcerated for a decade. He tells Kit, "I'm your father, and I've missed the hell out of you." However, it becomes instantly clear that he's just messing with them and he soon reveals his name is actually Allagash and that he fought alongside Madmartigen in the Battle of Land's End.

"Your father's alive," Allagash reveals to Kit. "Help me out of here and I'll take you to him." Kit ends up rescuing Allagash and he reveals that there is a secret vault in the mines that Madmartigan entered before he disappeared. Kit is drawn to the vault and finds her father's sword and hears his voice, begging her for help. In addition to helping Kit learn the truth about her father, Allagash also had a pretty hilarious confrontation with Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel). In the end, Allagash ends up staying behind in the mines to give the party some time to escape, and he dies fighting. 

Who Voiced Madmartigan in Willow? 

Since Kilmer was unable to appear in the show, his son with fellow Willow star Joanne Whalley, Jack Kilmer, actually provided Madmartigan's voice in the episode.  "Jack has been a great friend to Willow all along, you know," showrunner Jonathan Kasdan recently told Decider. "Between Joanne and Val he basically is the child of the Willow franchise." Kasdan added, "We actually recorded with Val and we used his performance as a guide track. Then Jack was given Val's performance to listen to and then copy what his dad had done in terms of you know, the performance elements of Val's thing."

The first six episodes of Willow are now streaming on Disney+. 

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