Composer John Debney Set To Score 'Oswald' Series

Image Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Oswald’s return to the spotlight will be accompanied by an accomplished composer! It’s officially been confirmed that award-winning composer John Debney will score Jon Favreau’s upcoming Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series for Disney+!

Working since the late 80s, John Debney is one of the most prolific and active film composers in the game. His breakthrough came in the 90s thanks to his acclaimed scores for Hocus Pocus and Cutthroat Island, the latter frequently being hailed as one of the greatest film scores of all time. Other notable scores since then include The Princess Diaries duology, The Emperor’s New Groove, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The Passion of the Christ, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, The Greatest Showman (alongside Joseph Trapanese), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (with Germaine Franco), Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, and Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. He earned an Academy Award nomination for The Passion of the Christ and won three Emmy Awards for his work on The Young Riders, seaQuest DSV, and The Cape.

Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1927, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit enjoyed immediate success. However, after Universal Pictures took creative ownership in 1928, Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, which inadvertently lowered Oswald’s popularity. In 2006, during his first year as CEO, Bob Iger acquired the rights to Oswald and all 27 shorts Walt Disney had worked on. Since that time, the character has cultivated a devoted cult following, propelled by roles in the Epic Mickey video games and a vast array of merchandise. Due to Oswald’s cult status, he has frequently been hailed as one of the greatest cartoon characters of all time.

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Image Source: Variety

Word of an Oswald-centric series for Disney+ begin circulating in 2019. In 201, animation veteran Matt Danner revealed he had pitched an Oswald animated series to Disney, but it didn’t move forward. Despite backlash, Danner assured fans that the project could be developed by a different creative team due to Disney’s desire to revive Oswald’s popularity. An Oswald series was officially confirmed in 2025, with Jon Favreau at the creative helm. Favreau first conceived of an Oswald project when working with visual effects supervisor Andrew R. Jones during production of The Jungle Book. In addition to creating the series, Favreau will serve as writer and will direct one of the show’s 3 episodes. Jones will also act as director as well as Jude Weng. Jones is an Oscar winning visual effects artist who has won for his work on Avatar and The Jungle Book and received nominations for I, Robot and Favreau’s remake of The Lion King. Jude Weng is best known for directing episodes of many acclaimed television shows including Black-ish, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Lucky Hank, and Only Murders in the Building.

Oswald features an ensemble cast including Emmy nominee Ravi Cabot-Conyers (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), Ryder Allen (Palmer), Mykal-Michelle Harris (Toy Story 5), Emmy nominee Amy Sedaris (Bojack Horseman), Emmy nominee Kathryn Hahn (Agatha All Along), Al Madrigal (Lopez vs. Lopez), and legendary Emmy nominated comedian, actor, author, writer, and banjo player Steve Martin (Only Murders in the Building). The series marks the 5th collaboration between Jon Favreau and John Debney following Elf, Zathura, Iron Man 2, and The Jungle Book. While Favreau and Debney both worked on the Fox comedy series The Orville, they never collaborated on the same episode. The series will consist of three episodes, all of which were written by Favreau.

Celebrating his 100th birthday, Oswald hops onto Disney+ on February 17th, 2027.

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Source: Film Music Reporter

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