Once again, the streaming wars have caused severe collateral damage after Disney decided that if nobody was watching the vast array of originals available on both the company’s in-house platform and Hulu, then there was really no need to have them available at all.
The wide-ranging content purge has already caused an uproar among both subscribers and the creatives involved in many of the projects, with Willow standing out among the pack. The long-awaited legacy sequel was canceled after a single season, only for creator and showrunner Jon Kasdan to hint that may not actually be the case.
He seemed to be proven wrong in fairly definitive fashion when it was confirmed the episodic legacy sequel was being cast into the abyss altogether, which has led to a most unexpected reaction. Whereas many of his contemporaries have been voicing their fury at the Mouse House for its cull of film and television content, Kasdan seems shockingly on board with the idea.
You can see where he’s coming from, but the current complexion of streaming is a million miles away from the VHS era where many titles became Holy Grails that could only be tracked down and viewed through diligent research and perhaps a small amount of cash.
These days, all of the major companies drop expensive and star-studded projects that end up being almost entirely forgotten within a matter of weeks, so allowing Willow to fade from the memory doesn’t guarantee it’ll go on to enjoy the long-lasting cult status secured by its feature-length predecessor.