Way back in May 2019, we reported screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan was in talks with Disney about a possible TV series based on Willow – Ron Howard’s cult 1988 fantasy film. Well, this week that rumor was finally confirmed as Disney Plus revealed its plans to develop a Willow TV series. Additionally, the movie’s lead Warwick Davis will reprise his performance as the titular character. Howard will also be onboard, albeit only as an executive producer. Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) will direct the series.
The early 1980s saw several successful fantasy movies like John Boorman’s Excalibur and John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian. While far from blockbusters, both these titles earned enough money at the box office to jump-start a brief Hollywood trend of producing fantasy and sword and sorcery films. Thanks to this, we today have classics and “classics” ranging from Ridley Scott’s Legend, Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke, Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, and Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride to Don Coscarelli’s The Beastmaster and Peter Yates’ Krull. Willow came out at the tail end of this period. Co-starring young Val Kilmer, it received mixed reviews but did quite well, earning almost $138 million on a $37 million budget.
