If you are a hardcore Willow fan, you would have definitely heard of (and most likely read) the three spinoff novels that were published in the mid-nineties. Between 1995 and 1999, Chris Claremont and George Lucas turned out three novels that were set in the Willow universe. Shadow Moon, Shadow Dawn, and Shadow Star (collectively referred to as the “Chronicles of the Shadow War Trilogy”) pick up about fifteen years after the original film ends and feature a teenage Elora Danan as its central character.
Now the novels weren’t revolutionary or life changing in any way, but they seemed to capture the spirit of the original and were a lot of fun. What’s more, if you were as big a fan of the movie as I was, simply being able to revisit that world was a wonderful bonus.
Remember that Willow wasn’t a runaway box office hit and no one was really clamoring for a sequel. In fact, the movie only found a following later on VHS and in syndication. Which is why the biggest selling point of these books were the two big names on the cover: Chris Claremont and George Lucas.
The Myth of Creation
So here’s what we were told about these novels. The myth that was agreed upon was similar to that of Star Wars, in that George Lucas had outlined a Willow universe beyond just the first movie, and then hired comic book writer/novelist Chris Claremont to adapt them into a series of books. We were fed this idea that two of our generation’s greatest creative minds had come together to build out this world. And we believed it. (The cover for the first novel actually used the phrase: “From two of the greatest imaginations of our time.”)
Geeks everywhere rejoiced. The father of Star Wars and Indiana Jones had teamed up with the man who scripted “The Dark Phoenix Saga” and “Days of Future Past,” two of the greatest X-Men stories ever told. Surely this was a dream come true.
Turns out it was all a lie.
The Hard Truth
Here’s what really happened.
With the new Willow sequel series now out on Disney Plus and Disney Plus Hotstar, we were wondering if the novels were indeed canon, and if not, whether series creator Jonathan Kasdan had mined them for inspiration. We asked him as much and he proceeded to shatter our fragile little geek minds.
It turns out that Chris Claremont had written these standalone fantasy novels on spec (which is the process in which writers complete a manuscript and submit that to publishers without having signed a contract) and was shopping it around when someone within Lucasfilm had found them and suggested that, with minimal revisions, they could turn them into an extension of the Willow series. They made the changes, added George Lucas’ name to the cover in order to increase sales, and the rest is history.
Well, I will tell you this. I’ll give you the straight dope, which is that I, like you went in and absorbed those novels and was felt that they were critical texts. And then I went into Lucasfilm when we were beginning the discussion of this project, and it was explained to me, by covert members of the Lucasfilm family, that indeed what had actually transpired in the mid-nineties is that Chris Claremont had written those books on spec, and had written them as fantasy novels of his own, and was in search of a publishing partner. Someone within George’s company found them. Someone had the brilliant idea that very minimal revisions would be needed to turn them into an extension of the Willow series. There was a brief conversation, those changes were made, George’s name was added to the front cover to increase sales, and the mythology of George and Chris sitting down and writing those books is sadly exactly that, a myth.
Jonathan Kasdan, Series Creator, Willow
So much for that idea we had in our heads of Lucas and Claremont hashing out the finer details of the Willow universe together. All of it just seemed to be part of a corporate strategy for growing the franchise, and an easy way to contribute to “the churn.”
Kasdan was as heartbroken as we were, but after grieving “for a good couple of weeks,” he picked up and started plotting out this new series with fresh eyes. And a good thing he did, because his series seems to have turned out pretty good. (You can click here to listen to our review of the Willow series on The Goggler Podcast.)
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