After much speculation as to when and how the prophesied hero Elora Danan, whom the plot of the original film revolved around when she was just a baby, might appear in this new series, it turned out we\u2019d been watching her all along.<\/p>\n
She had in fact been played by Ellie Bamber, whose character Dove was a kitchen maid in love with Sorsha\u2019s son Airk, and who didn\u2019t realise she was in fact Elora, with her real identity having been hidden from her.<\/p>\n
Bamber spoke exclusively with RadioTimes.com<\/a> about this big reveal, explaining how her character will move forward throughout the series now the truth is out.<\/p>\n Bamber said: \u201cDove is a a kitchen maid and she\u2019s great at making muffins. And she falls in love with the prince and kind of asserts herself in this quest, even though no one really wants her there.<\/p>\n \u201cThen the big reveal happens at the end of episode 1 where she figures out who she truly is, and her journey is really about coming to terms with that and figuring out how to handle her power. Also what she\u2019s going to do with it and how it works and where even to start and how to accept that. I think it\u2019s a lot to really accept when you\u2019ve just been told that.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the show\u2019s writer and executive producer Jonathan Kasdan explained the decision to keep Elora\u2019s identity a secret, revealing it was baked into the show\u2019s design from the beginning.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe design of the show was always to play a little bit of a three card monty game with the opening episode and to make you, the viewer, wonder, \u2018Is one of these girls Elora Dannon and does she not realise it? What\u2019s happening?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we hoped it was the most satisfying one for that to be, and not just satisfying for her as a character but for Kit, the daughter of Madmartigan and Sorsha, to have all of her expectations upset in a way that felt true to me, to my adolescence, where nothing is what you think it\u2019s going to be and friends come from unexpected places, as do adversaries.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd those were all themes we wanted to weave into this story and that felt true to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Kasdan revealed that the casting of Erin Kellyman, who plays Jade, was meant to work in part as a red herring, so fans believe she will turn out to be Elora because of her \u201cflaming red hair\u201d.<\/p> Asked how long it took to cast the real Elora, Kasdan said: \u201cIt took about a day. I was vaguely aware of Ellie from her work in Nocturnal Animals, I knew that I was interested in her when I saw her name come up on the list, but within 10 seconds of her tape I knew that there was no one else gonna play that part.<\/p>\n \u201cShe just had this luminous glow about her that [was] so reminiscent of this baby [Elora in the original film]. And it was like, \u2018Well, how do you look at that and not think, \u201cOf course, this is what it was meant to be.\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n \u201cEllie\u2019s an unusual thing in this situation, because she\u2019s almost as inherent to the show as Warwick and she wasn\u2019t even alive when that movie got made. So that, for me, is the most serendipitous piece of casting that I was able to have.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as Elora, Willow and Sorsha returning from the original film, we can also expect Madmartigan to play a \u201chuge part\u201d<\/a> in the Disney Plus series, although star Val Kilmer was unable to return for filming.<\/p>\n Willow is streaming on Disney Plus now, with new episodes arriving weekly. Sign up to Disney Plus for \u00a37.99 a month or \u00a379.90 for a year<\/a>. Check out more of our Drama<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a> and Streaming Guide<\/a> to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0Radio Times podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Jane Garvey.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By James Hibbs Published: Thursday, 01 December 2022 at 12:00 am Well, who saw that coming? New Disney Plus series Willow saw a huge twist at the end of its first episode when Warwick Davis\u2019s sorcerer, who had been off screen for most of the runtime, finally appeared and revealed that a character we\u2019d been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":26388,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/willow-star-and-writer-on-episode-1-twist-and-surprise-returning-character.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By James Hibbs Published: Thursday, 01 December 2022 at 12:00 am Well, who saw that coming? New Disney Plus series Willow saw a huge twist at the end of its first episode when Warwick Davis\u2019s sorcerer, who had been off screen for most of the runtime, finally appeared and revealed that a character we\u2019d been…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/26387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/11\/willowonlinetrailer2uhdr709fstill220916.087369-29af31f.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
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