In 1927, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks introduced Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a precocious early animated character who predates Disney’s Mickey Mouse. Now nearly 100 years later, Oswald is back for a new TV series on Disney+ from Jon Favreau.

Favreau has become an important figure at Disney as a driving force behind series like The Mandalorian and live-action/photo realistic animation movies like The Lion King. He’ll be writing and producing the project for Walt Disney Studios as an animated/live-action hybrid.

Between May 1927 and August 1928, Disney’s animation studio produced 26 films featuring the slick, enthusiastic rabbit. Oswald was Disney’s first featured cartoon character that had been developed specifically for a starring role. The series’ financial backer was film producer Charles Mintz and the shorts were released by Universal. When Universal took control over Oswald, Disney cut ties with the character and created Mickey Mouse.

Oswald starred in over one hundred animated shorts throughout the 1930s, but eventually lost appeal in the early ‘40s. He went on to appear in books and comics, but was largely absent from pop culture for decades. In 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired Oswald and the character became a public domain property in 2023.

Favreau created, executive produced, and wrote The Mandalorian, and he was the executive producer on the Star Wars spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew. He also directed and produced the live-action/photo realistic animated version of The Jungle Book.