Gary K. Wolf regains full rights to Roger Rabbit and hints at making new stories with his iconic characters

The official ownership of Roger Rabbit has been successfully reverted to its creator, Gary K. Wolf. Wolf recently spoke about this in an interview, and said that he was free to work on any Roger Rabbit projects he wished to now, since the rights were back with him.

This move, however, was only possible because of the 35-year Copyright Reversion Clause, which allows creators, singers, and songwriters to regain access and reclaim all their rights to their works after a period of 35 years. 

Gary K. Wolf’s 1981 comic noir, called Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, was the basis for the popular 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

The US Copyright Act of 1976 helped Wolf immensely, and he was able to terminate all his copyright assignments and licenses granted after January 1, 1978.

The 1988 movie had won four Academy Awards, and while Disney had been keen on making a sequel for many years, the film project never left the developmental stage.

While Wolf had written three more Roger Rabbit books after the success of the 1988 movie, he now wants to focus on working on a live-action project.

Details explored about Gary K. Wolf’s regaining of rights to Roger Rabbit and his upcoming plans to expand the franchise

The ownership and copyrights of Roger Rabbit were returned to Gary K. Wolf by Disney last year, in 2024, due to the 35-year Copyright Reversion Clause, set forth by the US Copyright Act of 1976.

In a recent interview, Wolf spoke about wanting to expand the horizon of the franchise, now that he had all the means to move forward with the same. He said,

“I now have back the rights to all my characters, all my books. I can, basically, do my own Roger Rabbit projects”.

The hit 1988 movie called Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was based on his comic noir Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, and the movie ended up being a resounding success and also winning four Academy Awards.

Keeping in mind the quality of the movie, Wolf said,

“Any sequels that we do have to at least match the quality of the original 1988 movie. 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”. 

Wolf’s attorney was the one who had informed him about the fact that he could get back his rights to the Roger Rabbit universe, and while Wolf had initially written it off by saying that it seemed impossible, he was surprised to see how Disney handed it over to him last year in a very accommodating manner.

Gary had written three more books after Roger Rabbit, but currently, he said in his interview that he wants to focus on making sequel movies based on his books, for the franchise.

One of the main projects that he wishes to headline is a Jessica Rabbit live-action film.

It happened to be the first project he began working on and the one that has come the farthest. He said:

“The one that is most prominent is a live-action Jessica Rabbit movie based on the book Jessica Rabbit: XERIOUS Business. 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”. 

Stay tuned for more updates.