Warwick Davis has lashed out at Disney, some 20 months after the axing of his show Willow, which was also removed from the company’s streaming platform.
Davis, 54, reprised his role from Ron Howard’s original 1988 Willow film for Disney+’s live-action prequel series.
He played the lead character Willow Ufgood, a Nelwyn sorcerer who leads a party to rescue the twin brother of Princess Kit Tanthalos.
It was cancelled in March 2023, just two months after the eight-episode first season of the show ended its run on the streamer.
At the time, series creator Jon Kasdan had said it was more of a pause than cancellation, revealing that season two has been written and he hoped it would eventually be made.
Now, Davis has posted about the axing on X. Sharing a picture of himself on set, he wrote: “This image just came up as a photo memory… it’s a travesty that @DisneyPlus value shareholders over subscribers in their creative decision-making. I only ever saw each episode once!”
The axing of Willow is just one of many cancellations that have had fans up in arms, with many claiming that media companies such as Disney and Netflix have been curbing streaming content spending in search of profitability.
The fantasy show was among at least 40 titles pulled from the streaming site as part of a broader cost-cutting initiative under Disney CEO Bob Iger.
This image just came up as a photo memory. A BTS shot from the #Willow Series. 😃 It’s a travesty that @DisneyPlus value shareholders over subscribers in their creative decision-making. #Justsaying
— Warwick Davis (@WarwickADavis) December 11, 2024
I only ever saw each episode once!😡 pic.twitter.com/lA49jObIyd
Some of the other abandoned Disney+ originals have since made their way to various other digital platforms. For example, the sci-fi blockbuster Crater – which was erased from the platform only weeks after it premiered – has found a new home on Amazon and Vudu, where it is available to rent.
In a three-star review of Willow upon its release, The Independent’s Louis Chilton wrote: “The script is often patience-strainingly earnest, but there’s a rich vein of (somewhat incongruous) humour running through it.
“This is a boon for Davis, who is far more engaging as a comic figure than as a straight man; lines such as ‘He’s a prisoner of the withered crone’ sometimes clack out of his mouth like foreign objects.
“Also, like so much television now, Willow suffers from a muddy aesthetic during night scenes – a shame, because its daylit sequences generally look good, with fine production design, and there’s some real pep to the fight choreography.”
