50 Fun Facts About Willow (1988 Film)

Which actor, already famous as Iceman in Top Gun, played the boastful swordsman Madmartigan in Willow (1988)?

Val Kilmer took the part two years after Top Gun made him a star. He worked with Willow's director again in 2003 on The Missing.

The animal transformation scene in Willow (1988) pioneered which digital effects technique, later used in Terminator 2?

Morphing let a computer blend footage of one filmed animal smoothly into the next. The effects team wrote the software for this scene, then reused it on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Warwick Davis, the title star of Willow (1988), later played which Hogwarts teacher in the Harry Potter films?

Professor Flitwick was one of two Potter roles for Davis, who also played the goblin Griphook. The talent agency he co-founded supplied more than forty goblins for the final film.

In the tavern scene of Willow (1988), Madmartigan hides from a jealous husband by disguising himself as what?

A woman is the disguise Madmartigan wears until the husband, Llug, sees through it. The brawl Llug then starts gives the heroes cover to escape Bavmorda's troops with the baby.

The two-headed dragon conjured by accident in Willow (1988) was named after which pair of film critics?

Siskel and Ebert had the last word: on their television show, both critics gave the film a thumbs down. The monster appears when one of Willow's spells goes wrong and hits a troll.

Which director did George Lucas approach in 1985 to make his fantasy adventure Willow (1988)?

Ron Howard was in post-production on Cocoon when Lucas approached him. He was already looking for a fantasy to direct, so the offer arrived at the right moment.

In Willow (1988), Queen Bavmorda casts a spell that turns the army outside her castle into which animals?

Pigs are all that is left of the army, apart from Willow, who shields himself with the wand. He then restores the sorceress Fin Raziel, and she undoes the curse.

Which composer, who later won two Oscars for Titanic, wrote the orchestral score for Willow (1988)?

James Horner conducted the score himself, with the London Symphony Orchestra playing. He had first written music for Willow's director three years earlier, on Cocoon.

A sequel series to Willow (1988), with Warwick Davis back in the lead, premiered in 2022 on which streaming service?

Disney+ launched the series in November 2022, then cancelled it after a single season. By May 2023 it had been pulled from the service altogether.

George Lucas first approached Warwick Davis about Willow (1988) while Davis was filming which earlier movie?

Return of the Jedi was in production in 1982 when Lucas raised the idea, but five years passed before Davis was cast. The part was written with him in mind.

In Willow (1988), what is the name of the baby prophesied to bring about the downfall of Queen Bavmorda?

Elora Danan was played on screen by three different babies. The sequel novels and the later television series pick up her story once she has grown up.

Which British actress played Queen Bavmorda's warrior daughter in Willow (1988) and married her co-star that year?

Joanne Whalley met her co-star on the set in 1987 and married him the following March, two months before the film opened. She took up the role again in the 2022 sequel series.

Which co-creator and star of Upstairs, Downstairs played the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda in Willow (1988)?

Jean Marsh won an Emmy as the parlourmaid Rose Buck in the drama she helped create. Her turn as Bavmorda brought a Saturn nomination for supporting actress.

The skull-helmeted general who leads Bavmorda's army in Willow (1988) was named after which New Yorker film critic?

Pauline Kael spotted the joke and mentioned the villain who shared her surname in her own review of the film. Lucas played the same trick on two more critics when naming the film's dragon.

Which country's Tongariro National Park supplied the landscapes around Queen Bavmorda's castle in Willow (1988)?

New Zealand got an early fantasy credit here, years before Peter Jackson filmed Mordor in the same park for The Lord of the Rings.

In Willow (1988), the sorceress Fin Raziel is first found on her island cursed into the shape of which animal?

A possum is the form Bavmorda trapped her rival in before banishing her to the island. Willow's first tries at undoing the curse make her a bird and then a goat.

Warwick Davis followed Willow (1988) with the villainous title role in which horror film series launched in 1993?

Leprechaun ran to six films with Davis as the gold-hoarding monster. He gave up horror after his children were born, saying fatherhood changed how he saw the genre.

When George Lucas first dreamed up the story of Willow (1988) in the early 1970s, what was it called?

Munchkins was the working title in 1972, sixteen years before the film reached cinemas. Lucas said he had to wait for visual effects to catch up with what he had imagined.

Willow (1988) lost the Oscar for Visual Effects and the Hugo for dramatic presentation to which Robert Zemeckis film?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit beat it in both contests, and for best fantasy film at the Saturns too. Willow's one Saturn win came for its costumes.

In Willow (1988), which warrior daughter of Queen Bavmorda switches sides after falling for Madmartigan?

Sorsha changes sides during the fight at the cursed castle. By the end she and Madmartigan are the ones left to raise the baby.

What is the name of Willow Ufgood's race, the small farming folk whose village opens Willow (1988)?

Nelwyn heroes suited George Lucas, who said many of his films are about a small guy up against the system. This one, he said, simply made the idea literal.

Gavan O'Herlihy, the army leader Airk in Willow (1988), had earlier played Chuck Cunningham on which sitcom?

Happy Days cast him as the older brother of Richie, the character played by the man who went on to direct Willow. Chuck was written out of the show after its early seasons.

What is the mercenary Madmartigan trapped in when Willow first meets him at a crossroads in Willow (1988)?

A crow's cage holds Madmartigan at the crossroads, and he offers to take the baby if he is set free. Willow refuses at first and only later agrees.

Which effects company created the visual effects and animation sequences for Willow (1988)?

Industrial Light & Magic earned an Oscar nomination for the work. Its supervisor Dennis Muren turned down stop-motion for the transformation scene and had new software written instead.

Location scenes for Willow (1988) were shot in the vast Dinorwic slate quarry, which lies in which country?

Wales supplied the quarry, a disused slate working near Llanberis that now houses the National Slate Museum. The 2022 sequel series went back to the same country to film.

At the climax of Willow (1988), whom does Queen Bavmorda accidentally banish by completing her own ritual?

Herself, as it turns out: Bavmorda lunges at Willow, finishes the rite beside the altar and is swept into oblivion in the baby's place.

Which comedian and impressionist, later a star of The Usual Suspects, played the tiny Rool in Willow (1988)?

Kevin Pollak played Rool as half of the film's comic-relief double act. His partner Franjean was another comedian, Rick Overton.

The director of Willow (1988) had starred fifteen years earlier in which coming-of-age film?

American Graffiti was directed by George Lucas, long before he hired its young star for Willow. Lucas felt the two worked together as easily as he did with Steven Spielberg.

What gift does the restored sorceress Fin Raziel give Willow Ufgood at the celebration that ends Willow (1988)?

A spellbook is her parting gift to the farmer who set out as only an aspiring sorcerer. He carries it home to his village in triumph.

Which 1987 film shared its cinematographer, Adrian Biddle, with the fantasy adventure Willow (1988)?

The Princess Bride came out the year before, and a Washington Post review used the shared cameraman to argue that it had done more with far less spectacle.

In Willow (1988), Franjean and Rool belong to which race of tiny forest folk who snatch the baby?

Brownies capture Willow and his friend in the forest before a fairy queen orders them freed. Two of the tiny thieves then travel on with him.

Which actor, best known as R2-D2 in Star Wars, appears uncredited in the village band in Willow (1988)?

Kenny Baker shared the cameo with Jack Purvis, his partner in a nightclub comedy act called the Mini Tones.

Which struggling studio, then run by Alan Ladd Jr., put up half the budget of Willow (1988) after rivals refused?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was run by the executive who had approved Star Wars at Fox a decade earlier, and he backed Lucas again. Other studios had written off fantasy after Krull and Legend.

How does Willow Ufgood fool Queen Bavmorda into thinking the baby has vanished at the end of Willow (1988)?

Sleight of hand is all it takes: Willow only pretends to make the child disappear. Rattled, Bavmorda moves to attack him, and the mistake costs her the fight.

In Willow (1988), who smuggles the baby out of Queen Bavmorda's castle before being run down by hounds?

A midwife carries the child out at the mother's pleading. With the hounds closing in, she sets the baby adrift on the river that runs down to Willow's village.

Which castle in Willow (1988), the baby's rightful kingdom, do the heroes find cursed and overrun by trolls?

Tir Asleen is restored by the end and hosts the victory celebration. Before that it is the setting for a battle that a two-headed monster interrupts.

Which country's government refused George Lucas permission for a brief location shoot for Willow (1988)?

China said no, so Lucas sent photographers to the south of the country instead. Their pictures of the scenery became blue-screen backdrops in the finished film.

In Willow (1988), what is Madmartigan accidentally dosed with before he swears undying devotion to Bavmorda's daughter?

Love dust belongs to the tiny Franjean, who doses him with it by mistake. The enemy commander he woos is sceptical at first, though she has changed sides by the final battle.

Which village wizard, played by Billy Barty, sends Willow Ufgood off with the baby in Willow (1988)?

High Aldwin rules that the baby must be taken back to her own kind, and Willow volunteers. Barty founded an advocacy group for those with dwarfism in 1957.

Which game company released both an arcade platformer and a NES role-playing game based on Willow (1988)?

Capcom put out both games in 1989, and the NES one is only loosely based on the film's story. A computer game from Mindscape had appeared the year the film opened.

Which fairy queen frees Willow from his tiny captors and gives him a wand in Willow (1988)?

Cherlindrea also tells Willow who the baby really is and sends him to find an exiled sorceress. Until then he had only planned to leave the child with the first human family he found.

In Willow (1988), what name do Willow's villagers use for tall humans such as Madmartigan?

Daikini is the villagers' word for the taller race, and it is to a Daikini family that Willow is told to deliver the baby. Madmartigan is the first one willing to take her.

What is the name of Queen Bavmorda's dark realm and fortress, the villains' stronghold in Willow (1988)?

Nockmaar gives its name to the hounds and soldiers Bavmorda sends after the baby. Scenery for the fortress was filmed on the far side of the world from the English soundstages.

Which English wrestler, seen in the Indiana Jones films, played Bavmorda's army commander in Willow (1988)?

Pat Roach was known to British viewers as the bricklayer Bomber in the 1980s series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. As the general he spends the film behind a skull-shaped helmet.

Willow (1988) drew nominations for worst screenplay and worst supporting actor at which annual mock ceremony?

Golden Raspberry Awards voters picked on the script and on Billy Barty's village wizard, in the same season the film was up for two Oscars. It went home without either Razzie.

Which X-Men comics writer turned George Lucas's outlines into the Shadow War novels that continue Willow (1988)?

Chris Claremont wrote three books, starting with Shadow Moon in 1995. They are set about fifteen years after the film, with the rescued baby now a teenager.

Interior scenes for Willow (1988) were filmed at which famous studios in Hertfordshire, England?

Elstree is where Warwick Davis was called in 1987 to meet George Lucas and the director about the project. Lucas had first meant to pair it with locations in Northern California.

In the famous transformation scene of Willow (1988), which big cat does Fin Raziel become just before turning human?

A tiger is the last stop in a chain that runs goat, ostrich, peacock, tortoise. The effects team needed from September 1987 to March 1988 to make the sequence work.

In Willow (1988), what identifies the baby as the child foretold to destroy Queen Bavmorda?

A birthmark in the shape of a rune is the sign Bavmorda has been told to fear. She locks up every expectant mother in her realm, yet the child still slips away.

Which loyal friend stays with Willow at the crossroads when the other villagers head home in Willow (1988)?

Meegosh sides with Willow against the rest of the party, who want to leave the baby with the first stranger they meet. He travels on until Willow sends him home.