From 1991 sequel talk to a canceled Disney Junior show and a shelved Disney+ movie, Disney’s Rocketeer revivals never got off the ground. Now Dave Stevens’ trust is reclaiming the rights.
Disney has spent 35 years trying to get the Rocketeer back in the air. It may be running out of runway.
The Rocketeer Trust, which controls the late Dave Stevens’ hero, has filed a notice ending the rights deal Stevens made with Walt Disney Pictures, U.S. Copyright Office records show. It takes effect June 12, 2028. Boardwalk Times first reported the filing Friday, Oct. 23.
It’s the latest twist for a character Disney has never quite figured out. Here’s how each comeback went.
What does the Rocketeer filing mean for Disney?
Disney keeps what it already made. It can keep streaming the 1991 movie and the Disney Junior series, Boardwalk Times reported.
What it loses is the future. After June 2028, any new sequel, reboot or Rocketeer toy based on Stevens’ comics would need a fresh deal with the trust, according to Boardwalk Times. Disney hasn’t publicly commented.
Did The Rocketeer flop in 1991?
At the box office, yes. The movie cost about $35 million and earned about $46 million, Mental Floss reported.
Disney had planned sequels and toy lines, ComicBook.com reported. Those plans ended when the movie underperformed.
Director Joe Johnston summed it up in 2011. “There was a lot of talk of a sequel on June 20, 1991, but there wasn’t any on the 22nd,” he said, according to Mental Floss.
Why did Disney want The Rocketeer in the first place?
Toys, partly. Disney was the last studio Stevens approached, and it signed on once it saw the merchandising potential, he said, according to Mental Floss.
Disney also tried to change the hero. Then-CEO Michael Eisner wanted a NASA-style helmet. Johnston fought for the original design, and Stevens hired his own sculptor to settle it, Mental Floss reported.
The comic’s heroine, Betty, was modeled on pinup Bettie Page. The movie renamed her Jenny Blake, partly to avoid buying the rights to Page’s name.
What was The Rocketeers?
Disney’s 2016 attempt at a sequel that doubled as a reboot. The Hollywood Reporter revealed it, SlashFilm reported.
It was set six years after the first film, with Cliff Secord missing. A young African-American woman pilot would take up the mantle to stop a corrupt rocket scientist from stealing the jetpack technology.
Max Winkler and Matt Spicer were hired to write it, with Brigham Taylor, a producer on Disney’s The Jungle Book, on board.
What happened to the Disney Junior Rocketeer show?
It lasted one season, ComicBook.com reported. The animated series premiered Nov. 8, 2019, on Disney Junior, Disney Channel and DisneyNOW, Laughing Place reported.
It followed Kit Secord, Cliff’s great-granddaughter, who gets a rocket pack on her birthday and protects her town of Hughesville. Billy Campbell, the original Cliff, voiced Dave Secord. Wild Canary produced it.
What happened to The Return of the Rocketeer?
It stalled on Disney+. Announced in 2021, it starred David Oyelowo as a retired Tuskegee airman who takes up the Rocketeer’s mantle, Nerdist reported, citing Deadline.
Director J.D. Dillard was linked to it, but he told TheWrap in 2022, “I am not on that movie,” JoBlo reported. In April 2025, Oyelowo told the Los Angeles Times the project didn’t look like it was moving forward, What’s On Disney Plus reported.
“Projects like that suddenly become challenged,” Oyelowo said, pointing to a shift in the political climate.
Did anyone else pitch a Rocketeer sequel?
Yes. Mattson Tomlin, a writer on The Batman Part II, said he and Dillard pitched Disney a sequel that took place in real time, GamesRadar+ reported in June.
Tomlin described it on X as “100 harrowing minutes” about how “viscerally insane it is to strap yourself to a rocket.” Disney passed. He wrote that he’s “bummed it won’t see the light of day.”
Is the Rocketeer still flying anywhere?
In comics. The trust already handles that side, ComicBook.com reported. IDW Publishing launched The Rocketeer: Infiltrator in July, with Cliff and Betty going undercover in World War II.
Campbell had hoped any sequel would “respect the spirit of the original,” he told SlashFilm in 2021, according to JoBlo. Whether Disney ever gets to try again is now up to the trust.
Article compiled and written by Kambrea Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Pirates & Princesses newsroom. Pirates & Princesses is part of WebReef Media.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
U.S. Copyright Office public records (July 2, 2026), the termination notice
Boardwalk Times, Zach Perilstein (Oct. 23, 2026), the first report
Mental Floss, Stacy Conradt (July 12, 2016), the 1991 film’s history
ComicBook.com (May 22 and Oct. 24, 2026), sequel plans, the series and the comics
SlashFilm, Jacob Hall (July 28, 2016), The Rocketeers
Laughing Place (Oct. 10, 2019), the Disney Junior series
Nerdist (Aug. 30, 2021) and What’s On Disney Plus (May 2, 2025), the Disney+ movie
JoBlo (2021 and 2022), Campbell and Dillard
GamesRadar+, Lauren Milici (June 23, 2026), Tomlin’s pitch
Disney Jr. on YouTube (Oct. 14, 2019), the trailer
AI Disclosure: All articles are assigned, edited and reviewed by an experienced human editor before posting. Like most modern newsrooms, WebReef Media uses a variety of AI tools to help with accuracy and efficiency. Ways AI may be used in article creation include research, grammar, fact-checking and ideation, as well as occasional AI generated or enhanced thumbnails or graphics. No articles are generated or posted without human oversight or involvement.