George Lucas’ 1988 fantasy movie Willow is set to get a new TV sequel, which is being produced by original director Ron Howard and is being made for Disney+. Three of the main stars of the show have now been announced.
As reported by Variety, Ellie Bamber, Cailee Spaeny, and Erin Kellyman are all in talks to play lead roles in the Willow show. Bamber previously appeared in Nocturnal Animals and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Spaeny recently starred in Devs and the horror sequel The Craft: Legacy, and Kellyman played the mercenary Enfys Nest in Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.
No details have been revealed about their characters so far, and we know nothing about the plot of the show, other than the fact it’s a sequel set many years after the movie. However, it’s been confirmed that Warwick Davis will reprise his role as the movie’s heroic main character, Willow Ufgood.
The showrunners for the Willow series will be Jonathan Kasdan, who co-wrote Solo, and Wendy Mericle, who was co-showrunner on The CW’s Arrow. Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu will helm the pilot.
The movie also starred Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley, and focused on a quest to save a baby from an evil queen. It grossed $137.6 million worldwide from a reported $35 million budget. Discussions of a potential follow-up go back as far as 2005, when Lucas expressed an interest in making a Willow show. In 2018, Howard stated that there had been discussions about making a sequel.