Willow on Disney +

If there's already a thread for this upcoming Disney + series, I haven't been able to find it.

Willow is a sequel series to the 1988 feature film. The initial plot is that Kit, daughter of Sorsha and Madmartigan, along with a party of adventurers assembled for the purpose, seeks out the aid of famed Nelwyn sorcerer Willow Ufgood in finding her vanished twin brother.

The series features Warwick Davis returning as Willow, with Joanne Whalley returing as Sorsha. Madmartigan will not be appearing, in the first season at least; the showrunners have stated that Madmartigan is, however, essential to the story and his presence is very much felt throughout (they've also said that no one other than Val Kilmer will play Madmartigan, so perhaps there's hope of his appearing in subsequent seasons).

The cast so far is as follows:

Ruby Cruz as Kit, daughter of Madmartigan and Sorsha.

Erin Kellyman as Jade, a knight-in-training and Kit's best friend.

Ellie Bamber as Dove, a kitchen maid

Tony Revolori as a thus-far-unnamed sorcerer/prince

Amer Chadha-Patel as Boorman, a thief offered his freedom for assisting the group.

The trailer is out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbbveDpUZv4

Edited by Robbery on May 28th 2022 at 8:55:42 AM

That trailer is definitely going for the nostalgia factor there.

Embedded above link.

I guess I have two main things I'll be looking for with this show:

• I hope they do a good job with the music. The Willow soundtrack was the very first soundtrack I ever owned, and I still occasionally find myself humming the theme from time to time. While in work. Which would be embarrassing, but other people my age recognise the tune, even the ones who never saw the film.
• The trailer shows a brief moment of Willow hugging his wife, which is hopefully a nod back to the original film. The entire core of Willow wasn't just that he wanted to be a powerful wizard. He was a family man who was driven to the quest by a sense of paternal responsibility towards a child who was otherwise nothing to do with him. I hope they don't lose that element of his character.

The most recent thing I read has the show's producer and Warwick Davis saying that Val Kilmer is indeed involved with the show "in a big way," though not physically for the first season, at least; apparently he couldn't go to Wales for the shooting of the first season due to Covid restrictions. So apparently it's not just non-specific hope that he will be involved, he is involved. They've spoken with him and he's on-board.

I know what you mean about the music. A lot of people who've never seen the film have heard the music, as it often got used (along with music from Robin Hood: Price of Thieves) for adventure movie trailers in the '90's.

I always liked that the High Aldwin, while he had genuine magical power, utilized showmanship and just general good sense as much as anything else. He based his choice of Willow on Willow's own feelings, and then justified it to the crowd with "the bones."

I'm really curious who the dark-haired Nelwyn (?) in black with the knife might be.

Edited by Robbery on May 28th 2022 at 8:30:14 AM

Never even heard of the original movie until I watched Suburban Knights a year or so back

Wait. It was filmed in Wales? How on earth did I miss this? Well, now I know what my drinking game is going to be: spot the recognisable landmark!

I always liked the High Aldwin, and his differing messages to differing audiences. I liked his confidence lecture to Willow as well. While I'm wondering if we'll get a nod to that in this show (I'm expecting Willow to be the current High Aldwin), I do find myself wondering if the climax of the show will come down to exactly what you just said: forget the high magic, just go back to basics... and disappearing pig tricks. While Willow did learn to be a wizard in the film, what he ultimately learned was that courage, smarts and team-work was where the real magic happened, so the focus on needing powerful magic in the trailer makes me think that Willow will be passing this lesson on to the next generation.

I'm interested in the other Nelwyn, too. I notice Willow was high-fiving brownies, and that giant bird looks like they may have been a transformed person.

Edited by Wyldchyld on May 29th 2022 at 5:31:01 AM

Indeed, Wales was one of the filming locations for both the original film and the TV series.

Edited by gjjones on May 31st 2022 at 2:09:12 PM

Yes, I used to live near the quarry that was filmed. It was used by the university to teach diving to students that were doing relevant courses (oceanography or marine biology, for example).

Given that Fin Raziel's actress, Patricia Hayes, died in 1998, I wonder who will play her in the Disney+ series.

Also, I’m thinking that James Newton Howard will include the late James Horner's themes from the film.

Edited by gjjones on Jun 1st 2022 at 11:46:08 AM

Possibly no one. I expect she'll get mentioned, but I haven't heard anything to say that Fin Raziel will even be in the new series. For that matter, I haven't heard anything to say that Elora Dannan will be in the series (haven't heard of anyone being cast to play her) and I'd expect to see her before Fin Raziel, and she'd be about 20 or so in the show's timeline.

I just assumed Elora Dannan would be in the show. That's what the trailer made me think, anyway. This could be a Living MacGuffin plot, however.

The series starts today.

I watched the first two eps, and am currently re-watching the original movie.

Lots of homages obviously beyond the return of a lot of the original cast.

A little worried about Kit and her clear bitterness toward Elora, since her desire to save her brother and obvious impatience may lead to her making a rash decision.

I did find it amusing that Kit's brother is called... Airk.

What do you make of Graydon?

He's got all of the standard villain tropes going (clumsy, submissive, shy talker, apparent cluelessness, apparently useless in a fight, while being academic, adept at languages, quietly perceptive, stealth hi/bye moments, supportive pep talks, and suspicious moments with his own people).

There's so many villain tropes piled onto him in such an obvious way that I don't trust any of them. Sorsha forbade magic, so I think he's going to turn out to be a closeted sorcerer. He was watching Willow like a hawk when Willow was trying to teach.... Dove. So was Jade, and both of them were mouthing along while Willow was enunciating the words. One or both of them are going to end up magical — that, or only he's the magical one, while Jade ends up having to pull a "fake magic" routine, acting as a decoy for Elora. Let's face it, there's going to be fake magic involved, given all the film shout-outs, and I wouldn't be surprised if the disappearing pig trick ends up being used at some point. Especially now we know that Willow's vision tells him that the only way to save the world is for "Elora Danan" to die; given Elora's already got three names and two identities, that's word play already in motion. I still think the film's original message will be the key — team-work, smarts and courage are more important than magic — but the magical breastplate is obviously going to be important for Elora.

I forgot my planned drinking game. I'll rewatch the episodes on the weekend specifically to spot any familiar landmarks. I'm reserving judgement on the music, but I have liked some of the choices, and some of the direct use of the original music. The music they played as the plant sprouted at the end of the second episode worked well, I think. There was a dissonance between Elora being captured, the plant sprouting and the type of music that was playing — all three were out of sync with each other in just the right way.

I know why Val Kilmer couldn't reprise his role currently, but I do hope he's well enough to be able to play a small role later on, if the show goes on for long enough.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Nov 30th 2022 at 6:07:06 AM

On a completely different note, before the end of the first episode revealed that Elora was Dove, I honestly alternated between her, Kit (being actually Elora and just raised to think she was Sorsha and Madmartigan's daughter), Jade, and even Arik himself turned into a boy by magic.

The last one is completely within the realm of reason considering what Fin Raziel went through. If you can turn a woman into a goat, you can turn a young girl into a young boy.

I found something interesting when I was watching the Japanese dub on Disney+: Willow is now voiced by Takeshi Kusao, since his voice actor from the film, Kei Tomiyama, passed away in 1995.

Edited by gjjones on Nov 30th 2022 at 8:39:40 AM

I’m still not completely convinced that that Dove is Elora tbh.

Edited by megaeliz on Nov 30th 2022 at 8:49:46 AM

I began feeling like there's a bait-and-switch going on as soon as Kit said that maybe several girls had been given the marks as decoys and perhaps Jade has one, too. I did actually go looking for any interviews with the creators about Elora, and found some where they say they wanted the Elora reveal over quickly so they can concentrate on her character journey. That's because I was so supicious that they wanted Jade's red hair to make her the first candidate, so that they can use Dove to divert our (and in-universe) suspicions away, and it'll turn out to be Jade all along — especially given how interested Jade was in Willow's teaching. It even crossed my mind that the plant at the end could be more about Graydon having been there than Dove.

Sometimes, a show can be more confusing when it's being obvious than when it's not. Having said that, Lying Creator is a thing, so I guess we'll see if they really did want to get the Elora reveal out of the way, or if what Kit said was right.

I'd almost consider that, except that would mean that Willow has either somehow been fooled, or is deliberately lying to Dove to make her think she's something she's not, and I can't believe he'd do that.

Plus, Jade joined the quest from the get go, and the Queen didn't object, while she very clearly became worried when she found out Dove / the real Elora had left. So it's pretty unlikely that we're getting tricked here.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the idea of Willow being fooled, although it's clear they're still playing up the idea of Willow being underestimated.

I'm not sure why there's an in-universe mystery about the Crone. It's obviously Bavmorda, not just because the show makes it obvious but because the prophecy can't be fulfilled if it's not. I'm guessing the big plot puzzle that the show is being set up to solve is how to win without Elora dying to achieve it.

Gotta say, I'm not overly fond of Kit. I've never had much patience for self-centered, arrogant brats.

Yeah. I admit, her initial worry about her brother made me kinda get it.

Someone she cared about was kidnapped, and this was supposed to be about saving him, but then Dove comes along, is revealed to be the Elora Danon, and suddenly everything is about her. Add in her belief that Elora had something to do with her dad's disappearance (which she knows to not be true now, but those feelings don't go away easily), and it might feel like her entire big quest has been hijacked.

....She's still being a bit of a brat. No doubt about that, and right now, I don't trust her to not make a really bad choice out of a desire to save her brother, her resentment towards Elora, or a combination of the two.

In the meantime, they are now in front of one of the most important places in the lore.

A lot of magic, both good and bad went down at Nockmore. And of course, the greatest old lady fist fight in film history.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Dec 7th 2022 at 1:23:52 AM

Yeah, when Willow said where they were, my response was "right, I'm cracking out the film this weekend just to watch that scene".

It was Willow's use of Avagdu that did it though. Also, Greydon's sounding more and more like young Willow by the episode — someone with the potential for greatness, but who is held back by confidence issues. I still don't trust him yet, but I think if his father is up to no good, he just needs the confidence to stand up to him — in which case he'd be a cross between Sorcha and Willow. I think whatever Willow's hidden limitation is, Greydon's probably going to have to take over as Elora's more action-oriented guardian, allowing Willow to retain the role of the mentor figure (probably to both of them) who holds back until the key moment. That said, I think it's clear that Willow never fully overcame his own confidence issues and still struggles with that to this day — which is something I like. A lot of these personality traits don't magically (hah!) go away; you do have to wrestle with them for your entire life, you just become better at managing it over time (or better at hiding it).

I have to say though, the character I'm struggling with right now is Jade. It just feels like they have a future in mind for her, but they don't really know what to do with her right now until they get her to where they want her to be later on.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Dec 9th 2022 at 2:15:02 AM

Episode....4 I believe.

Elora seems to gain a bit more control of her powers, but Graydon has a weird secret, and I get the feeling she's not all that trusting of Willow anymore.