One of the things that I didn’t like about the new Willow sequel series is its contemporary sensibilities. It was like a fantasy film set in ancient times, but with a modern tone, and because of that, I never fully found myself engulfed in the story like I was with the original film.
I wasn’t sure why series showrunner Jon Kasdan and his creative team decided to take the show in this direction, but in a recent interview with GamesRadar, he offered some insight into that. He wanted the show to feel fresh and unexpected, and there were risks to that. 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 completely new version of what a character in that world could look like. And that spirit really is something we tried to carry through into the show, but do it in a way that was contemporary to this moment, the way Val had been contemporary in 1988.”
Yeah, but Madmartigan still felt like he was from the time that he was living in. It didn’t feel like he was plucked 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 puts a main focus on the relationship between Willow and Elora, who’s now a grown woman, and there’s a generational gap there that was used for some humor in the show. Kasdan explained:
“The driving inspiration for doing this was focusing the story on the relationship between this young girl, and this old guy who’s supposed to teach her how to save the world. That was the story we wanted to tell, and the generational clash between those two was at the heart of everything we thought this thing could be. The reason to do it, frankly, was to see, well, ‘What if that baby grows up? And what if she and Warwick have a fraught relationship rather than a simple and loving one?’ In that idea lay the potential for a series. And then the next step became, ‘Well, who would be around this girl that would make that 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 talking about these other characters and the purpose they serve in the story, Kasdan Says:
“All the different characters we had, each brings their own individual sound to the show, as countered by Warwick Davis. The way I tried to make peace with that tonal shift was that it would look and feel as scary and tactile as the world that [Willow director] Ron Howard had conjured up in 1988, and that you would get the sense of being out in the world and in the cold and the mud in the rain, and mix it with these wilder, looser elements. And that seemed like where we would go and furthermore how the show could distinguish itself from other fantasies that we love.”
I get what they were trying to do, and I can appreciate it, but I just think that maybe they leaned too far into making it feel “contemporary to this moment.” That was the things that pulled me out. I wish they would have stuck to the tone of the original film, why change something that worked so well!?
I’m really torn on this series because there are charming and delightful things in it that I liked! But at the same time, it those other changes to the tone prevented me from being fully immersed in the story.
What did you all think? Do you agree or disagree? Am I crazy!? All I know is I was excited about the series and I was slightly disappointed by it. You can read my first initial reaction to the series here.