The names "Ballantine" and "Boorman" are both homages to important contributors to the fantasy genre. Ballantine Books is one of the leading publishers of science fiction and fantasy literature in the United States, while filmmaker John Boorman is the director of the fantasy classic Excalibur (1981).
Warwick Davis's real-life daughter Annabelle plays Mims Ufgood. In the original movie, she was played by Dawn Downing.
Although the season one finale has hinted two more seasons, it was reported in March 2023 that Disney has cancelled the series. However, two days after the announcement, Jonathan Kasdan confirmed that the series is not cancelled, and that a second season has been written and is in development. He also said that the series is on a hiatus for at least one year in order to allow the actors to pursue other projects. It was later removed entirely from Disney+.
Showrunner Jonathan Kasdan credits Ron Howard taking over as director on Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) as the catalyst for the Willow sequel series getting a green light. Kasdan, who co-wrote Solo with his father, had expressed his love for the original Willow (1988) to Warwick Davis on set, but when he convinced Ron Howard to team up with him and talk to Kathleen Kennedy, they managed to secure a deal allowing Kasdan to bring his dream project to the screen.
In the December 2022 issue of SFX Magazine, showrunner Jonathan Kasdan revealed that the series features many references to the 1988 Willow novelization by Wayland Drew and the Willow roleplaying game sourcebook by Allen Varney (also 1988), which Kasdan took very seriously as a fan. However, the sequel trilogy of books called "Chronicles of the Shadow War", written by Chris Claremont from a story by George Lucas (published between 1995 and 1999) and generally unpopular with the fans, is described by Kasdan as only 'tangential' to his new story.