The original babies from Willow cameo in the new Disney+ series
If you've seen 1988's Willow, you've probably been struck by a few things... how hot Val Kilmer looks in a cage, how badass Sorsha (Joanne Whalley) is, and how the three infants — Kate and Ruth Greenfield and Rebecca Bearman — portraying the baby Elora Danan might just deliver the best baby acting ever captured on screen.
Both showrunner Jonathan Kasdan and executive producer Michelle Rejwan gush over the babies' performance in the film.
"Ever!" Kasdan proclaims when we point out the collective performance could be the best from an infant.
So when it came time to make a sequel to Willow for Disney+, Kasdan knew that not only did he want Elora Danan to remain central to the storytelling, but he also wanted to track down those original actors.
Everett Collection
"Three little kids played that part over the course of the movie," he explains. "We called all of them. And one of them got a call at like four in the afternoon in her flat outside of London. She answered the phone, and it was like, 'Excuse me, is this so-and-so?' And they were like, 'Yes.' And they were like, 'Were you by any chance the baby in Willow?' She's like, 'Yes.' They're like, 'Well, we'd love to have you come and be in the show.'"
Adds Kasdan: "She's in the opening sequence in the village. You see her walking by, carrying a basket of bread."
Willow is not only a continuation of the film's story, but it seeks to populate its world with as much of the original cast as possible, including Warwick Davis in the titular role and Whalley as Sorsha. So it's an extra full-circle moment that they were able to find cameos for the original Eloras.
After all, it was that baby that was Kasdan's starting point in concocting more story. "That baby provided somewhere for the story to go in a way that I've always sought with these sequels," he previously told EW. "I always ask, 'Is there a reason to keep telling it?' And I was curious what happened to that child and what she would do with that power."
Willow premieres Nov. 30 on Disney+.
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