After over four decades in video games, developer Warren Specter is retiring from the industry. But as Specter moves towards the door, he wants to make sure that the team behind his 2010 game Epic Mickey gets their due for bringing one of Walt Disney’s earliest creations back home to Disney.
In 2003, the development document for Epic Mickey reportedly spurred then-Disney president Bob Iger to eventually regain the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a breakout animated character created by Disney and animator Ub Iwerks. When the Oswald property was taken from Disney, the latter created Mickey Mouse and the rest was history. In 2006, Iger was Disney’s CEO when he made the deal to bring Oswald home in exchange for the rights to sportscaster Al Michaels. Subsequently, Epic Mickey was the first Disney project to bring Mickey and Oswald together.
Sixteen years after Oswald appeared in Epic Mickey, the character is getting his own miniseries on Disney+.. On his LinkedIn account, Specter reacted to the recent D23 preview of Oswald’s Disney+ show. He also noted that he that Epic Mickey’s contributions to the character were being overlooked.
“I’m seriously looking forward to [the miniseries], but it seems as if people are looking at it as the debut of the character,” wrote Specter. “Call me small-minded but that ain’t right.”
Specter elaborated that the game marked Oswald’s first Disney role since 1928, and added that the game’s sequel, Epic Mickey: The Power of Two, gave Oswald a voice for the first time in a Disney story and fleshed out his love interest, Ortensia.
“I have to admit that I’m a little bitter about the lack of credit the team gets for all this,” Specter wrote. “I was blown away that Disney trusted us and saw fit to reintroduce the little guy in a game. But the team did a great job and deserves to be recognized for it before Hollywood makes people forget the games ever existed.”
In 2024, Epic Mickey got a modern remaster in Epic Mickey Rebrushed. Around that time, Specter acknowledged that Epic Mickey 3 was unlikely to happen, but he did say that he had some ideas for the unmade sequel.