Roger Rabbit Creator Gary K. Wolf Reclaims His Toon Universe, Teases New Projects

After more than three decades at Disney, Roger Rabbit has officially returned to his original creator. Author Gary K. Wolf has regained ownership of the Roger Rabbit IP and its entire cast of characters through the 35-Year Copyright Reversion Clause, a legal provision that allows creators to reclaim their work decades after selling it.

“I now have back the rights to all my characters, all my books. I can, basically, do my own Roger Rabbit projects,” Wolf confirmed in an interview with ImNotBadTV.

The rights quietly reverted about a year ago, giving Wolf full creative control over the beloved characters from his 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? and its 1988 film adaptation. With the transfer complete, he’s already mapping out the next chapter for Toontown and its off-the-wall inhabitants.

“Any sequels that we do have to at least match the quality of the original [1988] movie,” he said, setting an astronomically high bar. “In production value, in tone, in script content, in empathy, in character development. It has to be as good, or better than, what we did before. That’s what the fans want, and I have promised the fans that’s what I’m going to give them.”

Wolf discovered he might be eligible to reclaim his rights while developing a noir-style TV series, Hairy Wolf, set in a gritty Toontown jazz club. When questions arose about who owned the Toontown concept, he dug into copyright law.

“35 years after you have sold the rights to a book or [song], you could petition the Library of Congress and get those rights back,” Wolf explained. “[An attorney] said to me, ‘You could get your rights back from Disney.’ I said, ‘There’s no way that’s possible.’”

To his surprise, the process was straightforward. “I expected that this would be a contentious process. Who knows what was going to happen? But, it was not. It was very civil, very courteous, very straightforward,” he said. “Disney was always top-notch for me. They treated me very well. They always accommodated me in whatever I wanted to do.”

With ownership restored, Wolf and his team are developing several new projects, including a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie.

“The one that is most prominent … is a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie based on the book Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business,” Wolf said. “That was the first project that we took a look at and the first we started developing. It’s probably the one that’s furthest along right now.”

During the interview, Wolf added that other films based on his novels are being considered. “A lot of people have asked why didn’t we do the first movie more closely to the Who Censored Roger Rabbit book, with the word balloons and those kinds of characters. Well, that’s on the table.”

Despite now holding the reins, Wolf said he hopes to reunite with some of the same surviving creative minds who brought Roger Rabbit to life.

“I would love to work with Disney again,” he said. “I’d love for Disney to participate in this. We could partner up on this. There’s a core group of people who were involved with the first movie, and I would love to work with those people again.”

In the long term, Wolf summed it up his ambitions simply, saying, “I’m looking to have fun with this and give the fans what they have been wanting now for 35 years.”