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Aug 28, 2023

Marvel Replaces Mickey Mouse in Disney World

Posted by: Lana Porter August 27, 2023 Sometimes, it’s challenging to keep track of all the brands with name recognition that fall under The Walt Disney Company’s entertainment umbrella. Marvel Comics

Posted by: Lana Porter August 27, 2023

Sometimes, it’s challenging to keep track of all the brands with name recognition that fall under The Walt Disney Company’s entertainment umbrella. Marvel Comics and Mickey Mouse may not seem to have very much in common except for their parent company, but now they are quietly going head-to-head in a direct way. One diligent fan took to Reddit to sound the alarm, announcing that Marvel replaces Mickey Mouse subtly in this Disney world.

Credit: Disney

According to Looper.com and a now suspended Reddit account from user Max Webber, the Marvel Universe is so big that it creates the erasure of Disney brand icon Mickey Mouse!

How, you ask? It all has to do with two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s two biggest heroes – Doctor Stephen Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch (played by Elizabeth Olsen). Marvel Studios slipped an Easter Egg of another iconic character into one variant timeline featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

RELATED: Disney Loses Rights to Mickey Mouse

Credit: Marvel Studios, Disney

Check out the television behind Wanda’s sons in the timeline portraying Earth-838 and consider this Multiverse of Madness theory from Webber (slightly edited for clarity):

In this dimension, variants of Wanda’s children are watching an old Disney cartoon of the character Oswald The Lucky Rabbit. Oswald was one of the first popular characters Walt Disney created, but he lost the rights to the character, so he had to create Mickey Mouse. I was thinking, in this dimension, he never lost the rights to Oswald – so the rabbit became the mascot of the Disney company instead of Mickey.

Walt Disney did, in fact, create Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in the 1920s for a successful series called the Alice Comedies, but lost the rights to the character to Universal. Even though Disney CEO Bob Iger regained Oswald’s copyright in 2006, the original setback led to the birth of Mickey Mouse.

Credit: Disney

Webber suggests Marvel replaces Mickey Mouse in this variant Earth Easter Egg with Oswald because he was never created. Other users were happy to go down this rabbit hole, considering what the black-and-white program could mean for the timeline’s color technology and the “massive cascading effect on society’s culture overall.”

Others easily brushed it off, arguing that in our reality, we have access to the old Oswald cartoons. Wanda’s sons were simply watching an old program, proving Mickey Mouse is alive and well. However, if you look again, you’ll see that the boys also have a plush toy of Oswald on the couch too…thoughts?

What do you think of this theory? Fans of both Disney classics and Marvel Entertainment are happy to dissect the possibilities!