Watch Warwick Davis introduce/mock the baby cast of his Disney Plus Willow show
Erin Kellyman, Tony Revolori, and more are very excited to be in TV version of a movie by the guy who narrated Arrested Development
Aging children everywhere rejoiced back in 2019, when Disney+ announced that it was reviving ’80s Ron Howard fantasy epic Willow as a TV show as part of its ongoing nostalgia mining efforts. 33 years after its release, Willow remains a singularly odd and interesting movie, full of rich characters, and a still-affecting blend of humor, heart, and surprisingly nasty violence.
Outside of some periodic casting news, developments on the Willow show have been quiet in the intervening years. But that changed this week, when IGN released the above video, which shows film and series star Warwick Davis introducing his young new cast mates—by which we mean, trading a bunch of enjoyably mean jokes about, say, the name of co-star Dempsey Bryk.
The end result is more charming than you might expect, as Ellie Bamber (Les Misérables) politely asks whether they’re going to “Irishman” Davis’ face for the show, and Bryk and co-star Amer Chadha-Patel get very excited when they find out that the guy who narrated Arrested Development directed the original movie.
(Also, we know Davis has his own extensive and very dry sense of humor, but it is a bit difficult not to view the “self-important jerk” character he’s doing here as at least a bit of an impression of his old pal Ricky Gervais.)
Amid all the jokes, it’s also just a reminder that the Willow show is rolling with a very stacked young cast; Mare Of Easttown’s Ruby Cruz, The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Tony Revolori, and Solo/Falcon And The Winter Soldier star Erin Kellyman all round out the roster, playing a variety of young princesses and serving maidens and other people who Willow will presumably have to grumblingly keep alive.
The Willow show—developed by Solo writer Jonathan Kasdan and Arrow’s Wendy Mericle—is currently set to premiere some time in 2022.