We are in a time of shows just disappearing as streamers remove series from their platforms for profit and taxes. Willow, the TV show sequel to the much-beloved fantasy film classic, was one of the bigger shows removed in this process and it came as quite the surprise when Disney+ yanked it from the platform entirely, leaving fans of the franchise with no way of watching the series ever and Disney without a fantasy show that was planned to be a big deal. It wasn’t just a surprise, however, to the show’s star Warwick Davis, it was an embarrassment.
“I meet lovely people on a daily basis who are fans of #Willow, who are the reason the @DisneyPlus series was made.” Please tell me @WaltDisneyCo, what do I say to these subscribers when they ask why they can’t watch the series any more? #embarrassing,” Davis said on Twitter over the weekend, calling out the company months after the show’s removal in May after its eight-episode, first season run earlier in the year.
Related: Willow Canceled at Disney+, No Season 2 Coming
Unlike other shows like Star Trek: Prodigy, there is very little chance of the series showing up on another streamer. Disney isn’t in the habit of selling its IP to others even if it isn’t using it and the streamer is even cutting back on Marvel content so a smaller franchise like Willow, based on a decades-old film, is really not going to be making the cut. That isn’t to say we’ll never get more Willow. A franchise is a franchise and Willow is still one of the ones Disney paid for when they bought Lucasfilm years ago. The series may be dead right now, but Willow could come back in some form at some point.
That’s little consolation for anyone who actually wants to watch the show or had it queued up to watch eventually. The series is completely gone as there’s no physical release and no way to buy it digitally either. This, of course, happened to TV shows for decades before DVD and streaming but in this day and age, it feels nearly criminal to completely wipe something from being viewed at all.
