For The Future is now only days away, with the second of three extended specials set to air this Saturday on Disney Channel as The Owl House continues along its sadly truncated final act. To celebrate the coming premiere and build up the hype, we’ve been given an all-new clip to share from the upcoming episode featuring King and The Collector, alongside a larger version of Andy Flexner’s excellent key art. It’s the beginning of the end, and I’m not ready.
My review of the extended special and a couple of other in-depth pieces on certain characters I won’t dare spoil here, will be arriving shortly after the premiere this weekend. Even with the recent leak, the fandom has been doing a fantastic job keeping spoilers on the downlow in respect for other viewers, the cast, and crew who all want this show to go out with a bang. For now, let’s jump right into this new snippet of footage.
King is alive! We knew that already, and Dana Terrace isn’t devious enough to kill one of our favourite characters off-screen. The Owl House is more whimsical than it is morbid. After the events of King’s Tide that saw Luz and company escape to the human realm, it seems The Collector has spent the past few months reconstructing The Boiling Isles in his image. If we put aside his genocidal tendencies and cosmic superpowers for a second, this little gremlin has one heck of an eye for style. You can check the full clip out for yourself below:
The Collector soars aboard a star with King in tow across a far more purple rendition of the demon realm than we’ve seen before. It’s brief yet fascinating, as constellations litter myriad frames hinting that perhaps he is slowly changing the titan’s decomposing corpse into a new being entirely. There’s also his newly constructed palace - or maybe rejigged from a location we already know - with high ceilings and fanciful furniture ideal for a cosmic being with the power of flight. Satin curtains, opulent statues, and winding staircases help define a big bad who is equal parts innocent and villainous, a combination that makes him that much scarier.
Aside from King’s adorable new outfit, my favourite part of this clip is the pathetic subversion of authority experienced by Odalia Blight. Once a queen of industry, Amity’s mum now must grovel at the feet of a child in order to stay alive, planting ideas in his head to fix the Boiling Isles and maybe bring back those he’s imprisoned. It doesn’t work, with The Collector kindly asking ‘Mama Dalia’ to get him more pizza bagels. I didn’t even know pizza or bagels were in this universe, but that’s a good thing to know. I can smell a redemption arc for Odalia on the cards, or at least an acknowledgement of her mistakes as she helps out the good guys.
Shortly after we see The Collector demand more bagels, he materialises a pile of puppet corpses from nowhere of characters we know and asks them to be taken to a place called ‘The Collection Room,’ which sounds mighty ominous. In the pile we can see one of Willow’s dads and a number of other supporting characters, who have long been enslaved to act as playthings and makeshift bodyguards. I said earlier this show wasn’t morbid - I was wrong.
The Owl House comes to an end with its next special, which I assume will air in the coming months now production is drawing to a close. Speaking at a New York Comic Con panel last year, creator Dana Terrace said “What can you do at this point? We did our best,” following the abrupt cancellation and effort required to piece these final few episodes together. They sure did, and I can’t wait to see this adventure go out on a high.
For The Future premieres on Disney Channel at 9pm PT on January 21