Willow: Disney+ Series
Based on: 1988 film of the same name by George Lucas
Developed by: Jonathan Kasdan
This was a very well-written, acted, and produced series, and I find myself sadly in a position of defending this statement because it seemed to garner near-universal criticism.
It's hard to say where the fault in this lies, but I feel confident in at least saying it was not with the production crew, writers, or actors. I think it was a combination of Disney pushing some themes a little too strongly and audiences having fairly closed minds--or simply looking for a greater sense nostalgia that wasn't quite there.
The Disney+ series serves as a sequel to the original movie, though not much of the original cast came back. In fact, labeling it as a sequel feels like bit of a stretch, story-wise. The pilot introduces us to a whole slew of new characters including Kit, who is the Princess Tir Asleen, Jade, a knight-in-training who Kit is sparring with, Airk, the Prince, and his love interest, a kitchen maid named Dove. When Tir Asleen is raided in the middle of the night and Airk is kidnapped, the remaining three of these characters, alongside Kit's arranged fiancé, Prince Graydon, are sent to rescue him. Later, Boorman, a prisoner, is given freedom with stipulation of assisting their rescue.
While this is a great concept for a series plot, it presents very little for fans of the original movie to cling to, aside of sharing the same world. Only in the final moments of the second episode are we reacquainted with Willow, who joins their party, and also reveals that Dove is actually Elora Danan--finally providing some nostalgia after nearly 2 hours of screentime. Despite the solid story, I can see how this could feel like too little, too late.
Another difference that I can see would put off original fans are the tone shift and humor. The movie was fully medieval, from set to characters to dialogue. However, this Disney+ series feels much more modern. It includes a much more diverse cast and LGBT themes (which I would argue are simply inclusive and fair), but it also includes more modern dialogue, with Kit throwing around smart wit, Boorman referencing quite a bit of womanizing adult humor, and the soundtrack also feeling more fast-paced and electronic. None of this put me off in the least and I could understand why Disney might have preferred this balance of medieval theme with modern flare, making it more palatable to younger audiences. But this is a pretty dramatic shift from the original, which was 100% family and child-friendly with only PG dialogue and humor, cute baby faces to draw in children and mothers, medieval themes consistent throughout, and wholesome ideologies all around.
Even with Disney approving of these shifts, I'm sad that audiences didn't give it more of a chance. I still felt that the story and acting were great and I was very interested to see where it was going. I appreciated that even with a larger cast, the writing still managed to make everyone relevant. Boorman and Graydon were arguably the minor side characters, but even they got their chances to shine, and the season finale event set up a much larger and greater role for Graydon. I'm very sad that we'll never see that come to fruition.
One other thing I liked a lot about this series was its world-building. The Willow movie introduced a great world concept full of fantastical creatures, tribes and species (?) of peoples, concepts of magic, and environmental features that a single movie couldn't possibly mine to its fullest. A TV series, however, can. This TV series did a great job beginning that journey, taking us to new places like ruined empires or mysterious flatlands that seem little like a sea. It also expanded on the magic, using Elora Danan and Willow's training to show us more of the extents of power in that world.
But all of these things were still only striking the surface, as the intent of the first season was to introduce us to a new generation of heroes and reground the story for new viewers. Sadly, this was never fully accomplished.
While it appears safe to assume that Disney has cancelled this show after just the first season, Kasdan seems to insist it's just on hiatus. What does that mean? It's impossible to be sure. I lean toward denial on Kasdan's part, and it's almost certainly nothing good. Still, as the saying goes, I can still just be happy that it happened.
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