Spoilers

Willow Ufgood returns in a magical blast from the deepest, darkest past (aka 1988).

Willow, directed by Ron Howard, gave viewers an enchanted, whimsical world with just enough twists on the expected fantasy tropes and archetypes to keep it fresh. In it, Willow and his band of mismatched misfits joined forces to defeat and evil sorceress and save the life of an infant who will grow up to save the world. Naturally, they succeeded. Willow returned in triumph to his family. Two members of the band, master swordsman Madmartigan, and princess and their adversary’s daughter Sorsha remained together to raise the infant – not just out of duty, but also due to their burgeoning love for each other.

One of the greatest risks of sequels is how precisely to carry on a story. Does it pick up from where the previous one left off? Does it jump ahead some period of time? With the same characters or new ones, and how far ahead? Do the same characters set off on a second, but unrelated, adventure? Do new characters set off on new adventures with only the setting and set-up in common? Willow combines more than one of the above.

Leap forward two decades or so, and the opener includes a nice recap of the movie. It doesn’t linger in the past. Renewed evil threatens the lands. Sorsha now reigns as queen over one of four kingdoms that comprise The Realm. She and Kit and Airk her now-grown twin children with Madmartigan mourn his disappearance an as-yet-unspecified number of years ago.

After so much time has passed in the fictitious world or in our real one (not two decades but three), one of the most burning questions is the fate of beloved characters from the original. Madimartigan has vanished. Sorsha rules alone. Willow and some of his previous companions appear, as does his daughter but (tragically?) not his wife or son. Former allies – and powerful magic-weilders – Fin Raziel and Cherlindrea have also passed on, Not so, Sorsha’s evil mother Bavmorda, however. Even after her previous defeat, her essence apparently lives on in her descendants and ominous dreams of impending peril now plague Sorsha, which is where this new series really begins.

In a by-now-common gender-swap, Princess Kit swordfights with both skill and alacrity, while Prince Airk seems interested only in pampering and pleasure – his – and becomes the series’ ‘damsel’ in distress when he is snatched away from the castle during a magical attack on the night of his sister’s betrothal celebration. Cue the rescue mission.

The actress portraying Kit does an admirable job despite some truly cringeworthy dialog. The faster they get past the ‘petulant princess’ phase, the better. Likewise, the ‘playboy prince’, although both Airk and Graydon (Kit’s intended) show glimmers of greater depth. Sorsha deserves far better than the role of nagging, exasperated mother. Nice courage and initiative shown by the cook in love with Airk. Predictable but nice. Jade, another swordswoman and Kit’s true beloved (the couple presented, happily, as not a big deal in the least) yet the relationship quickly deteriorates into soap opera, as does pretty much every relationship in the show. The cast rises above the melodramatic writing.  Nod also to the actress playing the young cook.

A few minor nits: the humans need to take much better care of their horses. Especially in an era when livelihoods depend on them, anything less makes no sense. The whole, “hide her from herself” tired cliché annoys even when well done, which it is not in this case. The reveal of Elora was a skillful surprise, though, as I thought it was someone else.

Verdict: Not off to the best start, but shows promise and gives plenty of nostalgic nods to the original. Worth sticking with at least a few more episodes.   5/10

Rigel Ailur