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Willow, the fantasy adventure sequel to the 1988 film of the same name, is currently streaming on Disney+. Warwick Davis, Joanne Whalley, Kevin Pollak, and Rick Overton were among the cast members who reprised their roles from the film.
Meanwhile, Val Kilmer, who plays the disgraced knight Madmartigan, does not have a full-fledged role in the series but does appear in a voice cameo, albeit in a special manner, in the sixth and most recent episode. Kilmer's son Jack and renowned screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan, who created the follow-up to the 1988 movie of the same name, were behind this pleasant surprise.
Jack is also an actor known for his performances in Palo Alto (2013), Lords of Chaos (2018), and in the video of English singer Ozzy Osbourne’s track, Under the Graveyard.
Meet Jack Kilmer, the voice of Madmartigan in Willow
Jack is the youngest child of Kilmer and his Willow (the film) co-actor Joanne Whalley. Born on June 6, 1995, he grew up in Los Angeles. The 27-year-old completed his primary education at the Center for Early Education. Actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jonah Hill are its alumni. Kilmer's son Jack recorded the voice cameo of Madmartigan in the sixth episode of Willow instead of the actor himself.
In first grade, he met the then-would-be director and screenwriter Gia Coppola, granddaughter of The Godfather creator Francis Ford Coppola. She asked him to review the script for Palo Alto (2013), a screen adaptation of actor James Franco’s book of the same name.
As he was reading through the lines, Gia taped him, and that became his audition. He landed the role of Teddy, one of the main characters, while Val Kilmer joined the cast as another character’s father.
Jack Kilmer's subsequent performances were in Len and Company (2015), The Nice Guys (2016), and Hala (2019), among others. He also provided narration for his father’s documentary, Val. The Amazon Prime video piece was also shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
The 27-year-old was last seen in Bruce Willis's actioner, Detective Knight: Redemption, and has completed shooting its sequel, Detective Knight: Independence.
He is currently working on Dead Man's Hand, co-starring True Detective actor Stephen Dorff. The Thrill Is On and Generation Angst make up his slate of upcoming projects.
All about Val Kilmer’s return as Madmartigan
Throughout the series, Val Kilmer appeared as Madmartigan via archival footage from the film, but the sixth episode featured him in a special manner. Titled Prisoners of Skellin, it featured his daughter Kit (Ruby Cruz), who is determined to find out about Madmartigan.
In the episode, Allagash (Christian Slater), Madmartigan’s knight, and a prisoner in Skellin tells Kit that Madmartigan went missing after entering a secret vault located in the prison mines. Kit pursues the path, stumbles upon Madmartigan’s sword, and hears him asking for help.
As previously stated, the voice cameo was not recorded by Kilmer, but by his son Jack. Kasdan recently spilled the beans to Decider as to how that happened,
“We actually recorded with Val and we used his performance as a guide track. Then Jack was given Val's performance to listen to and then copy what his dad had done in terms of you know, the performance elements of Val's thing.”
He called Jack a “great friend to Willow” and said that he “basically is the child of the Willow franchise.”
Kasdan also credited Tommy Harper, the show's executive producer, for making the Kilmer cameo possible. Harper was the EP for Top Gun: Maverick, in which the 62-year-old was last seen as Iceman.
Kasdan notes that Kilmer’s appearance in the 2022 release gave them “food for thought” for the fan-favorite character, and Harper working with Kilmer earlier in the film further helped them with Madmartigan.
But why was Kilmer not cast?
It’s known by now that Kilmer has been battling throat cancer since 2015 and that his health issues had become "insurmountable" by the time the series started rolling in June 2021. And since COVID-19 still had not receded completely by then, it became difficult for Kasdan and his team to bring Kilmer, a California resident, to Wales to play Madmartigan.
Kasdan told Entertainment Weekly last month:
“As COVID overtook the world, it (Kilmer’s health problems) 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.”
Kasdan, however, clarified that Kilmer “could not have been more enthusiastic and game” about reprising the iconic role and that the boastful mercenary swordsman is still a part of the Willowverse.
Willow’s first six episodes can be streamed on Disney+.
