Disney Just Canceled One Of Its Best Shows After A Single Season
Disney canceled Willow Season 2, leaving the hit revival series with just the eight-episode first season as the cost-cutting and content reduction continues.
Deadline has reported that we won’t get a second season of Willow on Disney+. The show aired its season finale about two months ago, making the eight-episode first season all fans will be getting. The series was a direct follow-up to the 1988 cult classic fantasy film directed by Ron Howard.
Willow starred Warwick Davis as the titular character who guides a group of misfits on a dangerous rescue mission. Along with Davis, the show starred Ellie Bamber, Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Amer Chadha-Patel, and Tony Revolori. Jonathan Kasdan created the show and served as co-showrunner with Wendy Mericle, Ron Howard, and Bob Dolman. The show was well-liked by audiences and critics, with a current critic rating of 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
This is certainly disappointing news for fans of Willow, but it’s nice that fans were able to get a satisfying sequel to the beloved original. While the show is getting canceled, it still firmly remains a Disney IP. There may not be any more of the series in the future, but there’s always the chance that Disney could decide to bring it back and revive it again.
Canceling Willow may not be preferable, but it’s not surprising considering Disney’s new desire to pare down its spending on the streaming platform. The fourth quarter of 2022 saw Disney reporting more losses than expected on streaming. Disney also ousted CEO Bob Chapek and replaced him with Bob Iger, reportedly in part due to some of Chapek’s business decisions and overspending on content.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Disney isn’t still bringing new shows from their most popular IPs to the table. Willow is part of Disney’s Lucasfilm stable of franchises, including Star Wars. Plenty of Star Wars content is still on the horizon, so Lucasfilm is still a huge part of Disney’s output.
While we won’t see any more Willow in the foreseeable future, we’ll see quite a few Star Wars series soon enough. The Pedro Pascal-starring The Mandalorian is already several episodes into its most recent season, and it’s just as popular as ever. The animated series The Bad Batch is also airing new episodes of its most recent season.
For the rest of 2023, we can also expect to see the new animated series Young Jedi Adventures, which will skew to a younger audience of viewers. On the live-action side of things, we’ll also see Jude Law’s Skeleton Crew and Rosario Dawson’s Ahsohka series. It’s not surprising that the Star Wars series have more popularity and staying power than Willow, which is why we probably won’t be seeing any of these canceled anytime soon.
The Willow cancellation shows that Disney won’t be afraid of cutting content that doesn’t meet expectations. If you do want to see the first and only season of Willow, you can now enjoy all eight episodes on Disney+. Stay tuned for more news on all of the upcoming Disney+ series in 2023 and beyond.
