Filmmaker John Favreau announces Oswald, a mini-series, but it’s not the round blue Octopus that comes to mind

When you say the name Oswald, invariably the image of the cute blue octopus in a black hat with Weenie his sausage dog, and trusted friends Daisy, the flower and Henry the penguin comes to mind. But do you know that long before Oswald the octopus became popular in the 2000s, there existed Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. One might wonder how the rabbit is relevant now. That is because recently filmmaker John Favreau announced a three-part mini-series on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to hit Disney+ next year. This has stirred up conversations about this lost character.  

Who was Oswald the lucky rabbit?

Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1927, he was one of the first major animated characters, dating even before the launch of everybody’s beloved Mickey Mouse. In fact, with the successful premiere of 26 Oswald cartoons, it would not be wrong to mention that he was the basis of Mickey Mouse. However, Walt Disney soon discovered that he did not own the rights to the character and hence had to give it up. While Oswald the lucky rabbit got lost in the pages of legalities, Mickey Mouse was born for the audience.

Oswald in the earlier animations looked quite like Mickey Mouse, except that he had long ears, a distinguishing feature which made him look more rabbit-like as compared to the round ears of the mouse. In personality, he was of course happy-go-lucky, energetic, with a variety of expressions and extremely mischievous. Decades later in 2006, Disney got back the rights to Oswald and he was being included in video games, theme parks, merchandise etc.

Here’s what John Favreau’s Oswald may look like

John is known for his films like the Jungle Book, the Lion King, Iron Man and The Mandalorian.  The first look of the new Oswald was unveiled at the D23 Entertainment Showcase where it seems like john talks about the history of the character itself rather than introducing a carton – narrative.  The project is expected to release as a three-part miniseries on Disney+ will hit the OTT on February 2027. The nature of the project will be a cusp between live action and hand-drawn 2D animation.

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