After years of silence, rights limbo, and fans assuming the door had closed for good, the world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is suddenly wide open again, and Jessica Rabbit might be the first one to walk through it.
After more than three decades under Disney’s control, the rights to Roger Rabbit and every character connected to him are back in the hands of their original creator, Gary K. Wolf.
“I now have back the rights to all my characters, all my books,” Wolf confirmed during an interview with ImNotBadTV. “I can, basically, do my own Roger Rabbit projects.”
And he’s not wasting any time.
However, fans who’ve held out hope for a direct sequel to the 1988 classic shouldn’t hold their breath. Wolf hints that revisiting the original story is unlikely (though not impossible), but something else is already moving through development.
“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.”
In other words: Jessica Rabbit is finally stepping into her own spotlight.
Wolf says any project bearing the Roger Rabbit name has to clear a high bar.
“Any sequels that we do have to at least match the quality of the original [1988] movie,” he explained. “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 a tall order, especially considering Disney’s long-standing discomfort with Jessica herself.
Why Disney never pulled the trigger
Jessica Rabbit, “not bad, just drawn that way” was always a wild card in the Disney portfolio. Her mix of noir attitude, femme-fatale styling, and PG-rated sensuality pushed the edges of what was acceptable in a family film, and modern day Disney hasn’t exactly become more willing to push boundaries.
Robert Zemeckis, the director of the original film, put it bluntly last year during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“There’s a good script [for a sequel] at Disney, but here’s the thing: The current Disney would never make Roger Rabbit today,” he said. “They can’t make a movie with Jessica in it.”
Zemeckis even pointed to the way Jessica has been modified in theme parks over the years, “They trussed her up in a trench coat, you know”, as proof that the studio had no intention of revisiting her in any meaningful way.
In that sense, the rights returning to Wolf might be the only scenario where a project like this could exist at all.
Zemeckis also reflected on how the original film got made in the first place.
“We were able to make it right at the time when Disney was ready to rebuild itself,” he said. The studio was open to bold ideas, and the team behind Roger Rabbit took advantage. “I sincerely say this, I do believe this, ‘I’m making Roger Rabbit the way I believe Walt Disney would have made it.’ Walt Disney never made any of his movies for children. He always made them for adults.”
That philosophy helped shape a movie that was shockingly edgy for a PG rating, from the acid dip to Judge Doom to the (still-traumatizing) murder of an animated shoe.
And that edge is what fans have missed ever since.
So what happens now?
Wolf now holds the keys to the entire Roger Rabbit universe. He can re-adapt his book. He can develop spin-offs. He can pursue sequels outside Disney’s constraints. And he’s already telling fans exactly what he intends to deliver – stories made with the same tone, energy, and cinematic ambition as the original film.
Whether the Jessica Rabbit movie makes it across the finish line, and who might take on the role, is still unknown. But for the first time in decades, the possibility feels real.
For fans who grew up on Eddie Valiant, Judge Doom, Benny the Cab, and a chaos-prone rabbit with a heart of gold, that alone is big news.
Source: Toonado