The upcoming Willow series at Disney+ has announced a new cast member along with the unveiling of a new official trailer. At Disney’s D23 Expo, actor Christian Slater surprised fans with the announcement of his casting in the Willow show as a friend of Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan. Of course, the series also brings back Warwick Davis as the titular hero, and you can take a peek at him teaming up with a new cast of characters in the official trailer below.

“I love the fantasy, the sci-fi, getting to be a part of this show was, I’ll be honest with you, an absolute dream come true,” Slater said of his casting. “Getting to work with [Warwick] was great. [He’s] a legend. This whole cast I thought was great. To get to be a part of this family was very exciting. This was a very fun character, surprisingly we got to have some improv, some ad-libs, and came up with stuff on the spot which was a lot of fun. This was definitely a fun character, something I was really happy to do.”

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

The series also stars Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Ellie Bamber, Tony Revolori, Amer Chadha-Patel, Dempsey Bryk, and Joanne Whalley. It is developed for Disney+ by Jonathan Kasdan, who executive produces with the original movie’s director, Ron Howard, as well as Brian Grazer, Kathleen Kennedy, Wendy Mericle, Roopesh Parekh, and Michelle Rejwan. Julia Cooperman is producing.

Willow Is Made for Both Old and New Fans

     Disney+

The Willow show was developed with the idea of bringing back fans of the original movie while also gaining new fans by introducing Willow to a new generation. Series developer Jonathan Kasdan previously mentioned the difficulties in following the film with this new TV show, as there’s a certain pressure that comes with approaching such a beloved film and he doesn’t want to let down the fans.

“You know what, making the series, that really puts the pressure on because you’ve got a huge responsibility to make it the very best it can be for those people who have supported it and are passionate about it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “You don’t want to let them down because they’ll soon tell you. So that kept us on our game the whole time last year.”

On approaching the follow-up to Willow as a TV series continuation rather than a movie, he added, “I just thought everything about it lent itself to more stories in that world. And I was the first one to raise my hand when the possibility came up.”

Willow will premiere on Disney+ on Nov. 30, 2022.