When Val Kilmer’s Madmartigan first appears in director Ron Howard’s 1988 fantasy film “Willow,” he’s locked in a hanging cage awaiting his death. “Give me some water, peck, or you’ll die. You understand? Water!” he growls, grabbing the movie’s plucky hero Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) from behind. After teaming up, the pair go on to quibble over the appropriate food to feed a human baby and take a precarious but undeniably fun-looking sled ride down a snowy slope to avoid being captured by their enemies.
Madmartigan, the swaggering scamp of a swordsman that he is, is a role that calls for an actor with excellent comedic timing along with a knack for effortlessly emanating braggadocio. Kilmer had already proven himself to possess both those traits in spades by the time he signed on for “Willow,” having cut his teeth with early career roles in the broad 1980s comedies “Top Secret!” and “Real Genius” while having also, quite literally, snapped his teeth at Tom Cruise as Iceman in “Top Gun.” Kilmer’s Madmartigan would prove to be the perfect foil to Davis’s humble underdog Willow, their wayward buddy dynamic lending just the right mix of humor and heart to Howard’s Tolkien-esque spectacle.
Sadly, Kilmer was unable to return for the “Willow” show series on Disney+ due to health concerns stemming from his previous battle with throat cancer. However, if you have a hard time imagining any “Willow” follow-up without Madmartigan, you’re not alone. According to showrunner Jonathan Kasdan, Kilmer was all set to reprise his role for the series right up until the last minute.
‘We really wanted Val to come be in the show.’
Created by “Willow” co-writer and producer George Lucas, Madmartigan is, as he’s been described by /Film in the past, a “copyright safe Han Solo,” but dangit if he’s not a fun one! Once again, much of the credit for that belongs to Val Kilmer, who made the character feel fresh in a way that doesn’t readily come across on paper.
“We really wanted Val to come be in the show,” Jonathan Kasdan told Entertainment Weekly. “And Val really wanted to come out and be in the show. I remember going to see Val right after this thing started to get some momentum, and I said, ‘Listen, we’re doing this. And the whole world wants Madmartigan back.’ And he was like, ‘Not as much as I do.'”
Kilmer was in high spirits when Kasdan left. He even picked the creative up to show he’s still “super strong,” as Kasdan put it. “We started building out the first season with the intent of having him appear,” Kasdan added. Then came the pandemic, which created a whole new set of obstacles that Kilmer hadn’t been forced to deal with back when he starred in another legacy sequel to a nostalgic 1980s hit: “Top Gun: Maverick.” This was also the deal-breaker for his return, Kasdan confirmed:
“As COVID overtook the world, it became insurmountable. We were prepping in the spring of the year that it was most happening. And Val reluctantly didn’t feel he could come out. We had to figure out a way to preserve the story we wanted to tell with him about how his story was playing out.”
Madmartigan lives?
While the “Willow” sequel series merrily tips its hat to Madmartigan (in more ways than one), Jonathan Kasdan has declined to rule out the idea of Val Kilmer reprising the role proper one day. “We wanted to leave open the door to any possibility in the future and also honor the spirit of him,” Kasdan explained. “We’ve tried to do that and work with him in a way so that he is felt and heard, if not seen.”
Obviously, this is all predicated on “Willow” getting more than a single season, which is far from a given. The series simply doesn’t have the built-in demand of a “Top Gun: Maverick” and even revivals of 1980s fantasy properties with multi-generational fanbases aren’t surefire bets in the modern world of streaming, fantastic word of mouth be damned. (That’s my cue to pour another one out for “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.”) But in the event that “Willow” does, in fact, take off, then it’s nice to know there’s a chance Madmartigan may yet ride again.