While he was expected to reprise his role in the “Willow” series, Val Kilmer ultimately did not appear in the new Disney+ production. Find out why!
Thirty-five years after the release of Ron Howard’s film, the magical world of Willow returns to Disney+, no longer as a feature film, but as a television series designed as a direct sequel to the original story. !
Thus, while new faces have joined the cast of the program, cult actor Warwick Davis has taken over his role of Willow, while Joanne Whalley returns to Sorsha; however, Val Kilmer, who appeared in the film Willow as the mercenary Madmartigan, is missing!
The absence of the character in the series does not, however, result from a scriptwriting choice, as program creator Jonathan Kasdan explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
We really wanted Val to appear on the show. And Val really wanted to be on the show. I remember going to Val when things started to fall into place, and I was like, ‘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’ .
While this meeting ended in hugs, an unexpected event called Covid-19 unfortunately did not allow this long-awaited return to materialize. Considered a person at risk due to the cancer of the larynx which he was diagnosed in 2015, Val Kilmer did not have the opportunity to go to the filming of the series, forcing the screenwriters to rewrite the scripts to justify the absence of the character.
The door was nevertheless left open for a possible appearance of Madmartigan in the future, if a second season of Willow were to see the light of day. “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” commented Jonathan Kasdan in the same interview.
Episodes of the Willow series can be discovered every Wednesday exclusively on the Disney+ platform.