Jonathan Entwistle signs on to direct Willow pilot for Disney+

Disney+ brought back a lot of 1980s nostalgia with the announcement that the 1988 film Willow was being developed into a series with original star Warwick Davis back in his original role. The series comes one step closer to reality after The Hollywood Reporter reported that Jonathan Entwistle is stepping in to direct the pilot after Jon M. Chu withdrew from the project earlier this month.

Entwistle, whose recent projects include The End of the F***ing World and I Am Not Okay With This, will also serve as the show’s executive producer with fellow EPs and co-showrunners Jonathan Kasdan and Wendy Mericle.

The project has a lot of high-profile support from a large team of additional executive producers that include Kathleen Kennedy and Ron Howard.

It’s worth noting that there are quite a few Star Wars ties to this project, which makes sense given that George Lucas produced the original movie and Howard directed it. Howard, of course, also directed 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. The other ties include Davis, who starred in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, Kennedy as the Lucasfilm boss and Kasdan, who wrote the Willow pilot and also co-wrote the Solo screenplay.

Disney+ Series Willow Will Follow The Events Of The Original Movie

Willow is one of those movies that people remember rather distinctly. You either loved it or hated it, depending on how much it scared you. It was a fantasy adventure that captivated audiences young and old, but it was also very dark. Davis played the title character Willow, who is thrust into a precarious situation when he is forced to protect a baby from the threat of an evil queen who sees the child as the barrier to her plans for world domination.

The movie, conceived by Lucas in the early 1970s, reached cult status later in life as kids who saw it in the theaters grew up and appreciated the story as adults. The movie also starred a Top Gun-era Val Kilmer, adding to its appeal.

Filming on the Willow series is set to begin this spring in the UK. It has no premiere date as of this writing.