Willow: Jonathan Kasdan Explains How the Wyrm Ties Into Original Film

The season finale of Willow saw Willow (Warwick Davis) and friends going up against the Crone, but they soon learn that there's a greater threat out there. The final episode of the season sets up more for the future, including the looming threat of the Wyrm. It's revealed that the Wyrm was imprisoned beneath the surface of the world many, many years ago and is waiting to be released. Showrunner Jonathan Kasdan recently spoke with io9 about the finale and addressed the show's cliffhangers, and also talked about creating the Wyrm and how it ties in with the original 1988 film. 

"Well, it is," Kasdan said when asked if the Wyrm was invented for the series. "I mean, what's funny is that the symbol of the Wyrm, the insignia that we have on the doors and all over the show, is in the movie. It's on the giant gong they use in Bavmorda's rituals. One of the things that that I really loved about the movie was that it sort of hinted at a dark magic that was very powerful and much vaster than we got to experience in the movie. So the Wyrm, while a creation of the [show], felt like a natural continuation of the worship and gaining power for something otherworldly and sentient. He added of the path Elora (Ellie Bamber) sees in the episode, "There is something down there. Yeah. I mean, I think that yes. Yes, absolutely. There's a big giant worm. [Laughs]"

Is Willow Getting a Second Season?

"Honestly, I have no idea," Kasdan said about a renewal timeline. "We've never been in that kind of dialogue. My marching orders have always been 'Go forward, young man. Keep coming up with these stories.' And I'm certainly game to do it and I love everybody involved. So that's not a hard order to get to work on." He added, "Yeah, we've been working really, really hard and we're very optimistic. I mean, certainly, in some form or another, we would love nothing more than to keep going and to tell more."

Currently, fans hoping for future seasons of Willow, especially after the finale's post-credits scene featured a "Volume I" book being put on a shelf next to two more volumes.

"Yeah, I mean we've always been sort of in love with this idea that Willow existed as this book in a library somewhere that has been waiting to be opened for 35 years," Kasdan explained of the three volumes. "And it sort of sat on a shelf in the expectation that someone's going to pull it down. And certainly, as we told the story and got to the end of the story, we all knew and felt that where we were ending was certainly not the end of the story. And so it was a throwing of the cap over the wall, if you will, to sort of say 'There really is [more].' And what you can't help doing when you're surrounded by people you love working with is starting to talk about where it's going to go. And we had already been in that conversation when we were finishing shooting a year ago, and certainly, it's continued in the intervening year."

The first season of Willow is now available to stream on Disney+.