Warren Spector is bitter Epic Mickey isn't getting credit for Oswald's comeback

Warren Spector, the creator of Epic Mickey and the mind behind Deus Ex and System Shock, posted on LinkedIn calling out what he sees as a deliberate erasure of his studio's role in reviving Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The trigger was Jon Favreau's presentation at D23, where Favreau teased an upcoming Oswald miniseries and gave a brief history of the character — without meaningfully acknowledging the games that brought Oswald back.

Favreau traced Oswald's origins to the 1920s, noted that Walt Disney lost the rights shortly after creating him, and mentioned that since Disney reacquired the character in 2006, "we've seen him pop up in games and in shorts and things." That vague wave at "games" was enough to set Spector off. In his LinkedIn post, he laid out exactly what Junction Point actually did: Epic Mickey in 2010 gave Oswald his first Disney role since 1928. Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two in 2012 gave him a voice — provided by Frank Welker — marking the first time Oswald ever spoke in a Disney story. The team also created Ortensia, Oswald's partner, giving her a name, a voice, a personality, and a role that had no precedent in Disney's original material. "Call me small-minded but that ain't right," Spector wrote, adding that he's "a little bitter about the lack of credit the team gets."

The Epic Mickey games had a complicated legacy. The 2010 original was a Wii exclusive that landed middling reviews and sales, and didn't reach PC until the Rebrushed Edition in 2024 — which currently holds "very positive" reviews on Steam. The sequel sold even fewer copies, and Disney shut Junction Point down just months after Epic Mickey 2 shipped. That commercial underperformance probably explains why the games have faded from the cultural conversation, even if their contribution to Oswald's rehabilitation was real and substantial.

Spector says his main concern isn't personal glory — it's making sure the historical record stays accurate before the upcoming miniseries rewrites the narrative entirely. The Oswald series is set to debut sometime in 2027, which gives Disney time to acknowledge Junction Point's work properly. Whether they will is another question.