Willow: why doesn’t Val Kilmer appear in the spin

The long-awaited first two episodes of Willow are finally available on Disney+. If fans of the fantastic film have found Warwick Davis in the skin of the hero, many are those who wonder about the absence of Val Kilmer, who played the knight Madmartigan.

It was one of the most anticipated series of the end of 2022. Thirty-four years after the cinema release of Willowbehold the hero is back Wednesday, November 30 on Disney+. Several years after the events of the cult film of Ron Howard, the son of Queen Sorsha is kidnapped by evil creatures. Her sister Kit (Ruby Cruz), Dove, a servant (Ellie Bamber) and Jade, aspiring knight (Erin Kellyman) go to meet Willow, who has become a powerful wizard, to ask for his help. The latter accepts and will embark alongside his new friends on a quest to remote lands where they will have to do everything to save their world from a great catastrophe. Whether Warwick Davis and Joanne Whalley have reprized their roles from the 1980s film, but there’s one who isn’t in the cast. And it’s about Val Kilmer.

“Val no longer felt able to turn“

If showrunner Jon Kasdan was desperate for Val Kilmer to reprise his role as Knight Madmartigan in the sequel to Willow, the health crisis and the state of health of the actor have completely changed the game. The comedian, suffering from throat cancer since 2015, is greatly reduced. “We really wanted Val to appear on the show. And Val really wanted to be on the show. I remember going to see him when things started to fall into place, and I said to him: ‘Look, we’re going to do this show, and the whole world wants to see Madmartigan come back. And he answered me: ‘And me even more than the others'”, told the showrunner to the American media Entertainment Weekly. “When Covid spread globally, the situation became untenable. We were organizing preparations in the spring of 2020, when the epidemic was at its peak. And Val, reluctantly, no longer felt able to turn. We had to figure out a way to preserve the story we originally wanted to tell with him, about the evolution of the plot around his character..”

Could Val Kilmer make a comeback in a season 2 of Willow ?

If Val Kilmer is absent subscribers in this first season, producer Jon Kasdan nevertheless indicated to the media Entertainment Weekly that the door was open for the actor’s possible appearance in the future. “We wanted to leave the door open to any possibility, and pay homage to him in a spiritual way. We worked to find a way for him to be felt and heard in the series, if not physically seen.“, added Jon Kasdan. While waiting to find out if a second season of Willow will see the light of day, those who subscribe to Disney+ can already view the first two episodes of the fantasy series. As a reminder, Willow consists of eight episodes, which will be broadcast at the rate of one episode per week.

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Article written in collaboration with 6Médias