WILLOW series showrunner Jon Kasdan talks about changing things up to make it fresh and unexpected

One of the things I didn’t like about the new one Willow sequel series is its contemporary sensibility. It was like a fantasy film set in ancient times, but with a modern twist, and because of that, I never found myself as fully immersed in the story as I was in the original film.

I wasn’t sure why the showrunner of the series Jon Kasdan and his creative team set out to take the show in this direction, but in a recent interview with GamesRadar, he offered some insight into it. He wanted the show to be fresh and unexpected, and there were risks involved. He said:

“One of the things I love about the movie is that I’ve never seen anyone like Madmartigan in a fantasy before. Madmartigan sounded different. He didn’t try to do a British accent. He was a whole new take on what a character in that world it might feel. And that spirit is really something that we’ve tried to carry forward in the show, but do it in a way that was contemporary to this moment, the way Val had been contemporary in 1988.”

Yes, but Madmartigan still felt like it was from the time she lived in. It didn’t feel like he was taken from the modern world and put into a fantasy world, which is the vibe I get from some of these characters in the show.

The new series focuses primarily on the relationship between Willow and Elora, who is now a grown woman, and there’s a generation gap there that’s been used for some humor on the show. Kasdan explained:

“The main inspiration to do it was to center the story on the relationship between this young girl and this old man who is supposed to teach her how to save the world. This was the story we wanted to tell and the generation clash between those two was at the heart of everything we we thought it might be this thing. The reason to do it, frankly, was to see, well, ‘What if that kid grows up? What if she and Warwick had a strained relationship rather than a simple and loving one?’ In that idea was the potential for a series. And then the next step was, ‘Well, who would be around this girl that would make it even harder?'”

I actually like that aspect of the story and the relationship between these characters, and they were joined by a ragtag group of other characters, which Kasdan referred to as Willow’s “Breakfast Club.” When discussing these other characters and the purpose they serve in the story, Kasdan says:

“All the different characters that we had, each bring their own individual sound to the show, as contrasted by Warwick Davis. The way I tried to make peace with that tonal shift was that it would look and feel scary and tactile like the world that [Willow director] Ron Howard had conjured in 1988 and that you would get the feeling of being out in the world, cold and muddy in the rain, and mixing it with these wilder, looser elements. And that felt like where we were going to go and also how the show might stand apart from the other fantasies we love.”

I understand what they were trying to do and can appreciate that, but I just think maybe they went too far to make it feel ‘contemporary with this moment’. Those were the things that pulled me off. I wish they had stayed true to the tone of the original film, why change something that worked so well!?

I’m really torn about this series because there are fascinating and delightful things that I enjoyed! But at the same time, those other shifts in tone kept me from fully immersing myself in the story.

What did you think? Do you agree or disagree? I’m crazy!? All I know is that I was excited about the series and was slightly disappointed with it. You can read my first initial reaction to the series here.