“We really wanted Val to come be in the show,” showrunner Jonathan Kasdan tells EW.
It wouldn’t beWillowwithout Madmartigan.
But the idea wasn’t always for the character to remain off screen.
MGM/courtesy Everett Collection
“We really wanted Val to come be in the show,” Kasdan tells EW.
“And Val really wanted to come out and be in the show.
And the whole world wants Madmartigan back.'
And he was like, ‘Not as much as I do.'”
But Kasdan says Kilmer was up for anything when he visited the actor.
“He embraced me when I left,” Kasdan remembers.
“He picked me up, and he said, ‘See?
I’m still super strong.’
And I was like, ‘Great.'”
With that in mind, Kasdan was ready to bring Madmartigan back.
“We started building out the first season with the intent of having him appear,” he says.
“As COVID overtook the world, it became insurmountable,” he explains.
“We were prepping in the spring of the year that it was most happening.
And Val reluctantly didn’t feel he could come out.
