Willow Stars Reveal What They Learned From Val Kilmer

The new Willow series from Lucasfilm is coming to Disney+ next week, and it will see Warwick Davis returning to the titular role. The show isn’t expected to feature the other main star from the first film, Val Kilmer (Madmartigan), but Dempsey Bryk and Ruby Cruz are playing his twin children in the new series. Recently, the duo had a chat with ComicBook.com‘s Chris Killian, and he asked if there was anything from Kilmer’s performance in the original film that they tried to “latch on to” in order to “make it feel more believable” that they were the children of Madmartigan.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Bryk replied. “Definitely,” Cruz agreed. “Yeah, I think having access to that character was so helpful because we could sort of envision or imagine, we didn’t have to imagine who he was, but then we could imagine how he was as a parent, which was really fun … What we would admire, what we would reject, and I mean… I don’t know how much we can spoil.” Cruz then whispered something to Bryk and he replied, “Yeah, I think that’s probably fine.” Cruz continued, “Yeah, and sort of the absence of him was really interesting and sort of allowing our characters to – I actually don’t want to spoil.” Bryk added, “It’s also, you see their energy and that’s your parent, so you kind of subconsciously let it filter in. I think the most conscious way … I know for me personally, there were certain action moves or sword moves that were almost exact parallels. Little easter eggs that I’m curious to see if people will pick up on.”

How Did the Willow Series Come together?

Speaking with ComicBook.com‘s own Brandon Davis, writer Jon Kasdan emphasized the commitment to the lore of Willow’s world, discussing the process of bringing back Warwick Davis while exploring some major new territory:

“It’s a whole new thing. From the moment I got involved in Star Wars with George [Lucas], with Kathy [Kennedy], with my dad, I saw an opportunity here with Willow to bring this story back. I knew that Warrick was eager to do it, to play it again, and then when Ron came and worked on Solo with us, he was just as eager, too, and we let the momentum of that allow us to continue this story that the three of us really loved — that I loved as a fan and they loved as a working experience. I just thought, ‘How do I do this, and how do I give it the same fidelity that we tried to give to Solo?’ There are deep cuts in the Willow show, and references to the tabletop game and references to the novelization. We went deep, and hopefully the true fan will appreciate it.”  

Willow arrives on Disney+ on November 30th.