It has been quite an unpredictable year for streaming as the studios with streaming services have gone through massive shifts in the industry, namely the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes which have impacted so much of the film and TV industry for nearly half of 2023. One aspect to the unpredictable nature of streaming are decisions to simply remove any film or series from a service with no way to ever watch them again, a practice that is becoming increasingly more common.
One show to suffer such a fate is the Disney+ series Willow, a sequel series to the 1988 fantasy film which starred Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer. The first season premiered in November 2022 and concluded in January, but it was only a couple months after that Disney released its cast from their contracts and decided to cancel the show before removing it altogether for Disney+. This decision was part of a cost-saving measure the studio has undertaken in a year of upheaval and diminishing returns on several of their films, but was met with a great amount of criticism from fans and those in the industry.
Warwick joined the chorus of those displeased with Disney for removing Willow from the service, saying on X (formerly Twitter) “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.”
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 pic.twitter.com/tUu9gstkbS
— Warwick Davis (@WarwickADavis) October 14, 2023
Disney is not the only studio to have come under fire for removing Willow and other series from their streaming platforms. Warner Bros. Discovery opened the floodgates last year when they decided to unceremoniously canceled Batgirl, which has already completed filming and was in the midst of post-production, and other films for tax write-offs and later removed several films and series from HBO Max for the same cost-saving purposes. It has become an issue both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA have taken to in their strikes against the AMPTP.
SEE ALSO: Willow showrunner reacts to the series being removed from Disney+
Willow starred Warwick Davis and Joanne Whalley reprised their roles from the original Willow film with Ruby Cruz, Erin Kellyman, Ellie Bamber, Tony Revolori, Amer Chadha-Patel, Dempsey Bryk, Talisa Garcia, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers and Ralph Ineson.
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
