Willow Showrunner Shares What He Hopes Audiences Will Take Away From the Series

The season finale of Willow was released on Disney+ yesterday, and fans already have #RenewWillow trending on Twitter. Currently, there's no official word on whether or not the show will be getting more seasons, but the post-credits scene of the finale did tease a three-season plan. Showrunner Jonathan Kasdan previously said he's "begging" Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy to let them continue, and he's hoping fans will finish the first season wanting more... 

"Well, I hope that by the end of the eight [episodes] it feels like a cathartic continuation and expansion of what we barely just got to taste in the movie," Kasdan told The AV Club. "You know, I felt like George [Lucas] and Ron [Howard] together, and [Willow screenwriter] Bob Dolman, really created a window into a very big world that was populated by the kinds of characters that were familiar to the fantasy genre, but distinct. And I was just eager to open that door and create some new types and some new ways into it. And my hope is that by the end you're invested enough to want to see more of these characters and to go on further adventures with them, with even greater darkness than they are facing right now."

How Does Willow Honor Val Kilmer? 

The Willow series sees the return of some of the actors from the 1988 film of the same name, including Warwick Davis (Willow), Joanne Whalley (Sorsha), and Kevin Pollak (Rool). Originally, Val Kilmer was going to return as Madmartigen, but the actor struggled with his health after a battle with throat cancer, and filming during COVID felt too risky. Instead, Madmartigen's voice can be heard speaking to his daughter Kit (Ruby Cruz) in a couple of episodes. Turns out, Kilmer and Whalley's real-life son, Jack Kilmer, provided Madmartigan's voice in some scenes. 

"Jack has been a great friend to Willow all along, you know," Kasdan previously told Decider. "Between Joanne and Val he basically is the child of the Willow franchise." He 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 season of Willow is now available to stream on Disney+.