The first season of Willow came to an end in bombastic fashion, with an action-packed finale that also gave some serious hints towards the future of the series.
Not only were things left on a cliffhanger for our heroes, but the final shot of the series sees the book closed on this first season, with it being put back on the shelf next to two more, which are clearly marked volumes one and two. Fans have naturally assumed this means we could see both a second and third season of the fantasy series.
To get a sense on just where things are at on that front, RadioTimes.com caught up exclusively with creator and writer Jonathan Kasdan, who explained that conversations with Lucasfilm and Disney Plus about a second season are “going good”, while he added that the team are “eager to do it”.
However, he continued: “It’s a strange and unpredictable time here in Hollywood. You see it all over the industry – there are shows that were well on their way to moving forward that haven’t, shows that never expected to be in a second season that are – so you never know where you’re going to be and you never know where the world is going to end up in a year or whatever.
“But I will tell you that these things take so long to get going and then to make that the attitude and the support from Lucasfilm has been: ‘We definitely want to keep telling these stories, but we don’t know what the future holds.’”
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Asked whether the series has always been written with the intention of doing three seasons, Kasdan said that this was absolutely the case, as his “sensibility” has always leaned towards “a three act structure”.
He explained: “Probably the most influential thing in that regard is the original Star Wars trilogy which is such a satisfying and cathartic arc of three stories. You get to set up your characters in the first one and have things go horribly wrong in the second one, and then resolve it in the third one.
“And as a fan of these kinds of shows and stories, my expectation is that the creators of it and the storytellers have a clear sense of where it’s going to end, and not that they’re in it for the money and are going to keep going for as long as they can, but that they know that there’s a beginning and a middle and an end to their story, and they’re laying seeds of it from the very first scene.”
Kasdan continued: “I expect that and I’m always disappointed when I feel that is betrayed, and we really wanted to have that shape exist so that in the event we can, we’d love to fulfil the promise of those volumes.”
Kasdan also spoke about the finale’s cliffhanger scene, which show’s Tony Revolori’s Graydon, who the rest of the gang believe to be dead, waking up in the realm of the Wyrm, and seemingly being recruited by a dark version of Ellie Bamber’s Elora.
While the writer was coy about exactly what this all means, he did divulge some details about how it could fit into the show’s larger story.
He said: “I think that that one of the ideas we liked all season was that Willow is sort of plagued by a future he thinks is inevitable. We loved the idea that the final grammatical mark on this season was the Wyrm emphatically stating that another future might be possible as well, and that Graydon would be instrumental in that future and so would Elora.
“We loved this promise of, if you make contact with these dark forces that some of them maybe come with you. What most excited me about it is between the way Ellie played the final moments of leaving the city, and the ambivalence and internal dread that she expresses, and then the darker version of herself that Graydon is presented with, they really hit the note that we were going for, which is that all heroes have the potential to go either which way.”
This isn’t the first time Kasdan has expressed interest in continuing the show beyond this first season. He also previously told RadioTimes.com that he hopes Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan could return in future, adding that the mystery of the character’s whereabouts could lead to “further destinations”.
Willow is available to stream in full on Disney Plus now. New episodes arrive weekly. Sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for a year.
Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide or Streaming Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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