'Epic Mickey' Fans Got An Unexpected Surprise At D23

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit will live beyond Epic Mickey thanks to a new miniseries announcement at D23 Disney is finally doing something new with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit over 20 years after reacquiring the rights to Mickey Mouse's predecessor for Epic Mickey. In one of the more under-the-radar announcements from Friday's flagship D23 showcase, Jon Favreau announced an Oswald miniseries releasing on Disney Plus in Feb. 2027. Walt Disney actually created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit before Mickey Mouse, but he did not own the rights to the character. Oswald was abandoned and fell into obscurity as a result. Mickey Mouse, which Disney owned outright, became the company's flagship character. In 2006, Disney made a deal with NBCUniversal to get the rights to Oswald back by trading ESPN sportscaster Al Michaels to NBC's sports programming team. A few years later, Disney's reason for wanting Oswald became clearer. Oswald had a starring role in Epic Mickey, a Wii game about Mickey Mouse exploring worlds filled with obscure and forgotten Disney characters. He would go on to appear in Epic Mickey's sequel and 2024 remaster, but has otherwise mostly been relegated to the occasional cameo or brief ref