Willow creator clarifies season 2 future after cancellation report: 'The truth is less splashy'

Willow is not completely down for the count, but it's also not coming back to Disney+ anytime soon.

Series creator Jonathan Kasdan released a statement on the matter late Thursday night after reports circulated that the show had been canceled after one season.

"The truth is less splashy," Kasdan remarked in a lengthy response that he shared on social media.

Deadline first reported that Willow had been canceled at Disney+. EW was able to confirm that the show would not be returning with more episodes on the streaming platform in the near future, but that the fate of season 2 remained up in the air.

Kasdan clarified that there is very much a future for season 2, which he referred to as "Volume II" in his statement. "Are we going into pre-production? Not right now. Does that mean we're never gonna make it? Absolutely not," he said.

The producer pointed to the fact that Party Down received a season 3 order 13 years after season 2 ended, as well as the four-year break between seasons 2 and 3 of Atlanta, and the six-year hiatus between seasons 8 and 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

"Perhaps the one thing Hollywood has consistently been great at, over its entire history, is servicing the appetites, no matter how obscure, of its consumers," he added. "And I have total confidence that, if an appetite for more Willow persists, Disney, Lucasfilm, and this amazing cast and crew will satisfy it."

Kasdan noted some legitimate business realities of the Hollywood industry that were factors in the decision making. The first involved contracts.

"A decision was made last week to release our main cast for other series opportunities that may arise for them in the coming year," Kasdan explained. "With all the TV and movies in production around the world, it feels unfair to limit an actor's availability without a clear sense of when you're going to need them again. It's further trivialized by the simple reality that the scripts we've been working on require just as many actors (from our first season) with whom no such contractual hold exists. Nothing prevented Annabelle Davis, for example, from taking another show, but you better believe Mims appears in every single VOLUME II chapter."

Lucasfilm Ltd. Warwick Davis in the 'Willow' Disney+ TV series

He further called out how "production of streaming shows is slowing down across the entire industry," which means "Willow won't resume filming in the next 12 months."

"But here's what's equally true," Kasdan wrote, "with the enthusiastic and unwavering support of Lucasfilm and Disney, we've developed and written what we hope is a brain-meltingly fun, richer, darker, and better VOLUME II, which builds on characters and story of our first eight chapters. (The Wyrm survives!)"

The Willow season 2 arc, he described, "is all about courage, desire, acceptance, and the comedy and beauty to be found in even the darkest places and moments. It's about the enemies we must inevitably confront, both without and, often far more insidiously, from within. But, above all, it's about the ineffable and enduring magic of friendship."

Read Kasdan's full statement on Twitter.

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