I recently spoke with Kasdan about the process of writing “Willow” and creating this new cast of characters from the ground up. While Thraxus Boorman (Amar Chadha-Patel) was one of Kasdan’s favorite characters to write, he admitted that Graydon was the “most personal” for him — mostly because he was drawing from his own personal experience:
“I think that … certainly as a young man, I had that vulnerability in me and I had that sort of carrying the weight on my shoulders that made them roll inward, combined with a real romanticism and longing for love and community. What’s lovely to me about Graydon is that he’s this sort of very lonely kid who finally finds his family, and that’s something very bittersweet about him, sort of the connections he makes, not just with Elora, though paramount among them, but with all of them and the way they all sort of come around on Graydon is one of my favorite things about the show.”
As the crown prince of Galladoorn, Graydon’s been living with the responsibility of duty for quite some time. Kasdan himself is the son of Hollywood royalty (his father is legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan), so he likely understands that burden better than most. He even served as something of a reference point for Revolori’s performance: “Tony would probably tell you that he was doing me a little bit.”