Sword raised, Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) rushes into battle in Willow. Lucas calls the film "the first thing I've actually created since Raiders."

This February 1988 article is based on a question-and-answer session with George Lucas that occurred at a science fiction convention in May 97, a year before Willow was released. The article covers a wide variety of topics, especially Star Wars. Only the Willow-related text and pictures are reproduced here.

The discussion on Willow begins about halfway through the article:

Willow is "all mythical, so it really doesn't take place anywhen," Lucas says. In the Ron Howard-directed adventure, young Willow (Warwick Davis, right) attends a town council meeting led by the High Aldwin (Billy Barty).

STARLOG: Who are in the two new films?

GEORGE LUCAS: Tucker stars Jeff Bridges, and Willow stars Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley and Warwick Davis [STARLOG #101].

STARLOG: When does Willow take place?

GEORGE LUCAS: Somewhere in the third or fourth century B.C. roughly. It's all mythical, so it really doesn't take place anywhen.

STARLOG: Is the fantasy in Willow close to Star Wars?

GEORGE LUCAS: It's straight fantasy. More mythological. It takes place somewhere in the past, in a distant time and place. It's more of a traditional fantasy. Willow's a fantasy, not a space fantasy, a straightforward fantasy. It's the most exciting thing I've really been involved with since Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's the first thing I've actually created since Raiders. I think Willow is going to be a very exciting picture. It's in a genre that has had hard times in the industry, being regarded as a dead genre, like the Western. But I believe fantasy can live and work, and I'm trying to prove it [applause].

General Kael (Pat Roach of Raiders) leads the Nockmaar troops through the castles gates in Willow. "It was a movie I wanted to make," notes Lucas.

STARLOG: Are you aiming for a genre breakthrough?

GEORGE LUCAS: That's what we're hoping for. Whether or not it's possible, I don't know; ultimately, the decision to make Willow was just that it was a movie I wanted to make. I've wanted to make it for about 15 years. Now, I'm able to pull the elements together to make it happen, so I'm doing it. Whether or not the public is going to be ready for it, who knows? Sometimes you make a good film and nobody wants to go see it.

STARLOG: Were there any previous fantasy films that were successes?

GEORGE LUCAS: There haven't been any; they've all been pretty large disasters.

STARLOG: Is Willow going to require a great deal of special effects?

GEORGE LUCAS: There's a fair amount of special effects in it, but it's not a special effects film per se.