1988 fantasy adventure Willow might not have dug up kingdom-founding amounts of treasure at the box office, but it has long since become a favourite. Talk of a TV series continuation reared its head as recently as last year when Ron Howard brought it up to us while out stumping for Solo. Now, appearing on MTV's Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Howard revealed that he and writer Jon Kasdan are in talks with Disney about a show on the new Disney+ service.
"There are some really serious discussions going on with Jon Kasdan, who was one of the writers of Solo, who kept hounding me about Willow the whole time we were shooting and also hounding Kathy Kennedy, Howard tells Horowitz. We’re in discussions about developing a Willow television show for the Disney+. And I think it’d be a great way to go. In fact, George [Lucas] always talked about the possibility of a Willow series, and it’d be great and more intimate, and built around that character and some of the others. And Jon Kasdan has, I think, an inspired take on it and it could be really, really cool."
The original film starred Warwick Davis as the title character, a dwarf who must protect Elora Danan, an infant who is prophesied to bring about the end of the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda. With the help of a mercenary Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) and warrior Sorsha (Joanne Whalley), Willow embarks on a quest to take the child to safety. It's hard to imagine anything Willow without Davies, and indeed Howard confirms that the plan is to tell the further adventures of his character. "Warwick will be in it. Warwick is so cool and so good and he’s such a good actor that I really hope we get the chance to see the mature Willow in action."
Variety has since confirmed the talks, bumping the mention up to "negotiations," which makes us more hopeful this might happen.
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