Home Streaming Willow Showrunner Has Hopes for What Fans Take From the Season Finale

Willow’s prospects of a second season hang in the balance, but showrunner Jonathan Kasdan hopes that he will get to show more of Willow’s world.

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Willow did not get off the best start when it came to audience opinions, but as the series has progressed the Disney+ revival of the fantasy seems to have endeared itself to more fans as it reached its conclusion. Now showrunner Jonathan Kasdan is hoping that the tease of a three season plan can come to fruition, and revealed to The AV Club that he has a specific hope for how fans will be feeling after watching the season’s climax.

“Well, I hope that by the end of the eight [episodes] it feels like a cathartic continuation and expansion of what we barely just got to taste in the movie. You know, I felt like George [Lucas] and Ron [Howard] together, and [Willow screenwriter] Bob Dolman, really created a window into a very big world that was populated by the kinds of characters that were familiar to the fantasy genre, but distinct. And I was just eager to open that door and create some new types and some new ways into it. And my hope is that by the end you’re invested enough to want to see more of these characters and to go on further adventures with them, with even greater darkness than they are facing right now.”

Related: Willow’s Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Plummets as Fans Slam Disney+ Series

Willow Has Divided Fans, But Has It Done Enough To Secure A Second Season?

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Renewals of fantasy shows, with their high production costs, have been a hard thing to predict in recent years. With Amazon Studios committing to multiple seasons of The Rings of Power even before a single episode aired, but Netflix canceling dozens of big budget productions after a single season, there is no way of telling where Willow will fall when it comes to a renewal.
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Of all the streamers, Disney+ has been mostly focused on its various Marvel and Star Wars shows, meaning that there are not many go to comparisons as to how renewals are considered, and what the overriding factors are in deciding which shows do and don’t get the green light. Even with a boost from the finale’s performance when it comes to Willow’s reviews, the known viewing volumes from early in the series, which came in around 2.1 million unique viewers, do not paint a picture of overwhelming success. Other Disney+ originals , even those that also received their fair share of review bombing such as She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, have seen much higher viewing figures around an average of 8 million, which makes Willow’s figures pale in comparison.

Of course, comparing Willow to any show has its issues. The MCU and Star Wars franchises have huge dedicated fan-bases that go beyond simple nostalgia. Netflix shows like Wednesday have drawn from a big social media boost that Willow has had no footing in, seemingly due to not featuring a dance sequence that could go viral on TikTok. Overall, this makes the seemingly obvious decision to not renew Willow the only option for Disney and Lucasfilm, but the trending of a #RenewWillow tag on Twitter could still manage to sway a decision, but that is something fans will have to wait to find out.