Jon Kasdan, who serves as series creator and executive producer for Disney Plus' Willow series, said part of the creative direction the series took was inspired by the movie his father, Lawrence Kasdan, wrote, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
When Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. in 2012, it seemed obvious that the huge get for the company was George Lucas' Star Wars. Fans wondered about the other properties under the Lucasfilm banner, Indiana Jones and Willow, the niche fantasy movie Ron Howard had directed in 1988 starring Warwick Davis.
When it came time to develop the Willow TV series for Disney Plus, Jon Kasdan turned to his father’s work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The Star Wars sequel helped the creative team figure out how to pay tribute to what had come before in the original film while opening the world up for new adventures and a next-generation coming into their own in the storyline. "The Force Awakens was a big influence on this show because it was such a formative experience for both Michelle [Rejwan] and in terms of figuring out what works and what doesn’t and how much you want to try to push things forward and how much you want to give people what they’re expecting," Jon Kasdan said to Deadline.
He described how some days saw thirty people in troll costumes and prosthetics on set because keeping the Willow world real and grounded instead of filled with CGI was important to the creative direction. The characters needed to feel tangible and their world as well. That puts the series in line with the 1988 movie, which was full of practical sets and effects work, and characters audiences fell in love with—and the new Willow series is no different.
Kasdan also took from his time cutting his teeth writing for Dawson's Creek and in being an audience member for movies like The Prisoner of Azkaban, where he sees the potential for characters coming of age and, in the case of the Wizarding World movie, coming of age in a fantasy setting in which emotions are just as important as magic and adventure. Kasdan also talked about how he had to expand the world beyond the glimpses audiences got when they followed the adventures of Willow and Madmartigan (played by Val Kilmer) in the original movie, painting in the corners that nobody got to see or coming up with new pockets to explore that fit the tone of what had come before.
Willow is currently streaming Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
Source: Deadline