Jonathan Kasdan Wanted His WILLOW Series To Replicate The Terrifying Scale of Classic 80s Films

Director Jonathan Kasdan has brought us back to the magical world of Willow with his recent Disney+ series. Warwick Davis returns as the title character, and 20 years after vanquishing the wicked queen Bavmorda, he teams up with a new crew of misfits to venture out on a dangerous rescue mission into the unknown.

It was important for Kasdan to recapture the spirit of the movie in the series, and he also wanted the audience to feel the scope and scale of the character Willow Ufgood up against this massive fight, which is something we got a lot of in movies from the ‘80s.

In a recent interview with Collider, Kasdan explained:

And the other thing that's deep in this, for me at least, is Neverending Story was huge to me in this period, and I pair it with Willow in a lot of these conversations because one of the things that both were Ron [Howard] and Wolfgang Peterson gave each of those movies was a sense of scale that was a little terrifying when you were a kid.

And Warwick fundamentally adds to this, too, because he was this little person in this world of giant people. And I always thought that, fundamentally, I related to Willow as a kid. I related to Atreyu as this kid who's up against giant forces, and likewise, was this tiny little scrawny, skinny boy against, really, in that movie, sort of almost Lovecraftianly cosmic forces, and the Nothing, and all that stuff, and that hugely impacted, certainly, what I was afraid of growing up and then how I thought of this show.

He really wanted to make something as scary and daunting as the first film felt, which ends up making the hopefulness of the protagonist feel that much more inspiring, and the prevailing that much more rewarding. I haven’t caught up on the Willow series yet, but it’s a plan to binge over the next couple of weeks with the fam. I’ve heard both great and not-so-great things about the series so far. Have you watched? What do you think?

The sixth episode of Willow drops on December 28th, with the final two episodes airing on Disney+ on January 4th and January 11th.