Disney has spent more than three decades sitting on one of its coolest superhero franchises, and now it looks like The Rocketeer might finally fly out of the studio’s hands. After years of failed sequel attempts and abandoned reboots, the rights to the beloved comic book character could soon return to the family of his creator.
According to Boardwalk Times, the Rocketeer Trust has filed a notice to reclaim the rights to The Rocketeer from Disney. The trust is represented by Jennifer Bawcum, sister of the late Dave Stevens, who created the character.
The move invokes a provision of federal copyright law that allows creators and their heirs to reclaim rights granted under agreements made 35 years earlier.
The notice was reportedly served on June 11, 2026, with the termination scheduled to take effect on June 12, 2028. The filing identifies several Disney subsidiaries and six original Rocketeer copyright registrations.
This doesn’t mean Disney will lose the ability to distribute its existing Rocketeer productions. The law’s derivative-works exception protects those projects. However, developing new sequels or reboots after the termination would require a new rights agreement.
For fans of the original 1991 movie, this could be an interesting development, especially considering how little Disney has done with the franchise over the years.
Directed by Joe Johnston, The Rocketeer starred Billy Campbell as Cliff Secord, a stunt pilot in 1938 Hollywood who discovers an experimental jetpack stolen from aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, played by Terry O’Quinn.
Cliff eventually becomes a masked, jetpack-powered hero and finds himself battling a Nazi spy disguised as a Hollywood movie star, played by Timothy Dalton, while trying to save his girlfriend Jenny, played by Jennifer Connelly.
The film helped reopen Disney’s El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, but its disappointing box office performance killed any immediate hopes for a sequel. But, audiences eventually discovered the movie on home video and DVD, where it earned a devoted cult following.
Disney has made several attempts to bring The Rocketeer back. In 2016, the studio started developing The Rocketeers, a sequel centered on a new pilot taking over Cliff Secord’s heroic identity.
It would have picked up six years after the original film. The story would have seen Cliff Secord mysteriously disappear while fighting the Nazis, leaving a new hero to take up the jetpack.
This time, the Rocketeer would have been a young Black female pilot who steps into the role to stop a corrupt rocket scientist from stealing the technology and potentially changing the course of the Cold War.
It was an interesting direction for the franchise that would have kept the original film’s period setting while introducing a new generation of characters. Unfortunately, like so many other attempts to revive The Rocketeer, it never got off the ground.
That project eventually became The Return of the Rocketeer, with David Oyelowo attached to star and J.D. Dillard directing.
Unfortunately, the project stalled in 2025. More recently, Mattson Tomlin, one of the writers of The Batman Part II, revealed that he and Dillard had pitched Disney a real-time Rocketeer sequel featuring 100 minutes of the hero fighting fascists. That sounds like a pretty awesome way to bring the character back, but Disney passed on the idea.
The studio did manage to revive the property in 2019 with an animated Disney Junior series following Cliff’s great-granddaughter, Kit. Campbell even returned to voice Kit’s father. Unfortunately, the show only lasted one season.
Meanwhile, the Rocketeer has continued having adventures in comic books published by IDW Publishing. The Rocketeer Trust already oversees that side of Stevens’ creation, so the termination filing won’t interfere with the ongoing comics.
Disney has faced a similar situation before. In 2025, Gary K. Wolf, creator of Who Framed Roger Rabbit characters, used the same copyright provision to reclaim his rights. Wolf has since explored new projects, including a potential live-action Jessica Rabbit movie.
As for The Rocketeer, Disney still has options. The studio could negotiate a new agreement with the trust, or the character could find a new home with another studio. There’s also the possibility that Disney could get another project into production before the 2028 deadline, potentially preserving distribution rights for that specific production.
I’ve been a huge fan of The Rocketeer ever since the original movie came out, and I’ve wanted to see this franchise revived for just as long. It’s crazy to me that we’ve gone 35 years without a proper movie sequel. The original film was such a fun adventure with a style that still holds up today.
It’s a shame that Disney never figured out what to do with it. The studio has had multiple opportunities to bring Cliff Secord back, yet every promising project seems to end up going nowhere.
Maybe losing the rights is exactly what needs to happen. I’d love to see a filmmaker who genuinely loves the character get the opportunity to make another great Rocketeer adventure.
Whether Disney strikes another deal or the franchise moves elsewhere, I just want to see this character back on the big screen!
