Need a little magic in your life? Well, we all do, really, which means we’re all in luck later this year as the long-awaited Willow TV series hits Disney+ on November 30.
Remember Willow? Back in the day, George Lucas took inspiration from his childhood faves to make some of the most popular franchises of all time. Flash Gordon begat Star Wars, James Bond inspired Indiana Jones, and J.R.R. Tolkien-style fantasy provided the grist that would be milled into 1988’s Willow, an epic fantasy starring Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, and former Ewok Warwick Davis as the titular Willow, a brave farmer destined to become a powerful sorcerer and save the realm from the evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh).
Willow didn’t exactly set the world on fire back in the day, but if you saw it at the right age it put the hook right in you, and grown adults the world over get goosebumps when they hear the first stirrings of that magnificent James Horner score. Which explains why we’re now getting a legacy sequel streaming series, with Willow teaming up with a new generation of heroes, including Erin Kellyman (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Tony Revolori (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Ruby Cruz (Mare of Easttown), and Amar Chadha-Patel (The Wheel of Time).
We get some familiar faces in the mix, too. Joanne Whalley is back as warrior woman Sorsha and, delightfully, Kevin Pollak and Rick Overton return as mischievous Brownies Rool and Franjean, the clear MVPs of the original film. No sign of Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan yet, but never say never—Kilmer’s return as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick was one of the highlights of the movie, so there’s a reasonable chance the former Batman will put in an appearance in some capacity.
We’ll be clicking play the second the first episode drops, faster than you can say “Two-Headed Eborsisk”.
