Willow Ep. 6 fills a Val Kilmer-sized hole as best it can.
The series certainly has its issues, but I try to focus on what's working well.
The Short Take:
Episode 6 clicks Willow into another gear for me, delivering an infectious sense of high adventure with satisfying emotional stakes. Surprised by how much I liked the Madmartigan-adjacent storyline.
Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly
[SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t caught up on Willow, do not wander into this wild wood.]
The Long Take:
How do you replace Val Kilmer? The smart answer is you don’t.
The biggest obstacle the Willow sequel series has had to overcome from the start is what to do about Madmartigan. While some actors who played major characters in the 1988 film — namely Warwick Davis (Willow) and Joanne Whalley (Sorsha) — would return, Val Kilmer, after his battle with throat cancer, could not. This, of course, presented problems with plotting: how would the series explain Madmartigan’s absence when his wife and children still live in Tir Asleen? But, more importantly, would the new series lack the secret sauce that the original film had? How would the ensemble’s dynamic function without the charisma — the goofy swagger — of Madmartigan, disgraced Knight of Galladorn and himbo extraordinaire?
This series has its issues, and you can hear me, my friend Greg (@eyeoncanon), and our gracious host, Dan Z, discuss those issues on this week’s Coffee With Kenobi. But, for me, the one thing they’ve gotten completely right is working around Val Kilmer’s absence from the production. They didn’t recast him. They didn’t recreate him with CGI. They, shockingly, didn’t even try use the AI reproduction of Kilmer’s voice that he himself has reportedly commissioned. Instead, they chose to trap Madmartigan in an alternate dimension, having nobly chosen to battle an unknown evil. With that premise, all they had to do was record a brief voiceover from Jack Kilmer, Whalley and Kilmer’s son, to make it seem like he’s ethereally trying to reach out to Kit through the magical barrier that separates them. This way, he’s still Madmartigan, adventuring and playing the rogue turned hero, and our memory of him remains untarnished.
We don’t have to see Madmartigan to feel his presence because other characters talk about him and convey sentiments on behalf of him to the younger generation of heroes. One of the most powerful moments in this episode for me was when Allagash gives Kit one last message before he locks himself with the trolls to ensure the party’s escape. He says, “Your father could have killed me, but he didn’t. And not because he didn’t want to…He didn’t kill me because I think he thought that someday I’d cross paths with you, your brother, or your mother…He thought I’d be able to tell you. He went off to fight whatever’s down there because he believed one of you would protect what matters most up here.” When Kit asks what that is, Allagash very pointedly and dramatically says, “Elora Danan.” The swell of music and urgency of the action really did me in here. In this moment, I bought into the Elora Danan prophecy hook, line, and sinker. Earlier in the episode, Willow admits that “for all the trouble he caused me, I really could have used him on this one.” So there’s a reverence and a mourning of Madmartigan’s absence, but also a sense that he looms large and can still play a part in this story.
Image Credit: The Envoy Web
What’s more, Madmartigan’s disappearance facilitates Kit’s emotional arc, which cathartically climaxes at the end of this episode. I have to confess that I was not overly fond of Kit in earlier episodes; I found her to be whiny, entitled, too brash, and a little self-centered. But she’s grown on me over time and this episode propelled her towards the top of my favorite character list (Boorman and Jade remain in front while Grayden, in his current puppy love phase, has fallen behind). Actress Ruby Cruz owns this episode, effectively conveying the pain and trauma of being abandoned by her father for a quest. I also liked how her bemused and adoring facial expressions towards Allagash say so much about what she has been missing without Madmartigan in her life. Allagash is the closest she’ll ever come to being with him again. The only moment that tops Allagash’s farewell scene is the one in which Kit confronts Elora and admits that she resents her for being the chosen one who preoccupied her father. She says, “I could’ve got him, I could’ve brought him back, and I could’ve finally understood why every time he chose you instead of me.” It’s heartbreaking.
All this, however — no matter how compelling — still would not have been enough. Willow’s creators wisely recognize that without Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan, there’s a void in the series. Even if the plot gives a good reason for him to be off-screen, long lost and at this point (probably) unrecoverable, what Greg (@eyecanon) astutely called a “twinkle” would be noticeably missing from our return to the world of Willow. The dynamic and balance of personalities between Madmartigan and Willow, constantly playing off each other, is part of what makes the original film work. So without a Madmartigan replacement, and without a visible walking and talking rendition of the character in the series, how do you preserve that twinkle?
Image Credit: Forbes
To fill the void left by Val Kilmer’s absence, Jon Kasdan and company have populated the series with characters who aren’t necessarily meant to replace him, but can provide a similar energy. That’s working really well for me because I find that the new characters — Boorman and Allagash — are still their own, distinct characters. Boorman is a skilled warrior, providing the barbarian (and I use that term in the D and D sense and not in the pejorative sense) muscle to the party while being goofy and cracking jokes. That’s similar to Madmartigan. And yet, he’s very different than Madmartigan. He is much more of a rogue rather than a rogue with a heart of gold; he’s good at sneaking in and out of fortresses, and you can never tell how much he’s lying or telling the truth. He also seems to front more than Madmartigan ever did, using his braggadocio to mask his insecurities. Allagash, similarly, has that dumb and/or brave, swashbuckling streak, but, like Boorman, is much less trustworthy. He’s also just unhinged. Madmartigan would never voluntarily break out into terrible song or occasionally speak in riddles.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm.com
Thus far, I’ve been somewhat mixed on this series. I’m generally enjoying it and am willing to hang on for the ride, but acknowledge that it’s not achieving the heights of other series I’ve seen this year (ahem, Andor), and hasn’t yet made it to the upper echelon of fantasy stories. In terms of handling the bumps that inevitably come with constructing a sequel series many years later, though, it’s doing better than most.