Disney+ Cancels Willow TV Series After Just One Season
Update: Jon Kasdan has addressed this here. The original story continues below.
Legacy sequels are big business right now, and the "Willow" Disney+ series seemed poised to potentially be a successful part of that trend. Unfortunately, the series has been canceled by the House of Mouse after only one season, according to Deadline. The show's eight-episode first season ended just about two months ago, but the streaming service has decided not to move forward with any more installments.
Based on the 1988 film of the same name from director Ron Howard, "Willow" followed up on the story of a sorcerer named Willow (Warwick Davis), who found himself charged with the task of taking down an evil tyrant. The series takes place many years after the events of the film and follows several new characters, along with some old familiar faces. However, it seems that there just wasn't enough there to grab audiences' attention.
The "Willow" series received generally favorable reviews from critics (you can read ours here!), only to be review-bombed by "audiences" almost everywhere because a small subsection of homophobic viewers were upset about the show's focus on a queer couple (a princess and a female knight). Sadly, because of that, it's difficult to tell how audiences actually felt about the show. Still, if the streaming metrics were low, then the series never stood a chance.
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Notably missing from the "Willow" series was Val Kilmer, who played the roguish but heroic Madmartigan in the original film. Unfortunately, he had to sit out filming due to health concerns, although there were hints that he could have potentially appeared in future seasons. Warwick Davis reprised his title role as Willow, and was joined by franchise newcomers Ellie Bamber, Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Amer Chadha-Patel, and Tony Revolori as a crew of young people who set out on a dangerous quest to mirror Willow's own when he was younger.
It's not a massive surprise that the series was canceled, given both its confusing fan reception and the greater state of things at Lucasfilm, where "Willow" originates. After all, the company is currently extremely busy with all of its "Star Wars" shows and future movies, and spreading themselves too thin with another franchise is risky. That being said, the series did well enough with critics and has a loyal fanbase, so it's possible we will see some kind of "Willow" follow-up in the future — just maybe not as another season of a TV series.
"Willow" was show-run by Jonathan Kasdan (who also wrote the pilot) and Wendy Mericle. George Lucas, who wrote the story that the franchise was based on and executive produced the original film, was involved in spirit only, as he gave Kasdan his blessing to do more with "Willow" years ago. Both "Willow" the film and the series are available to stream on Disney+.