The Owl House is an American animated fantasy television series created by Dana Terrace that aired on Disney Channel from January 10, 2020, to April 8, 2023. The series features the voices of Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick, Alex Hirsch, Tati Gabrielle, Issac Ryan Brown, Mae Whitman, Cissy Jones, Zeno Robinson, Matthew Rhys, Michaela Dietz, Elizabeth Grullon, and Fryda Wolff. The series follows Luz Noceda (Robles), a teenage girl who learns magic after being transported to a fantasy world and befriending a witch named Eda Clawthorne (Malick) and her demon housemate King (Hirsch).
In November 2019, ahead of the series premiere, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on June 12, 2021. In May 2021, ahead of the second-season premiere, the series was renewed for a third season consisting of three specials, later announced to be the final season of the series. Terrace later stated the show had been shortened, because the series "did not fit the Disney brand". The first episode of the final season premiered on October 15, 2022, followed by the second episode on January 21, 2023, and the series finale on April 8, 2023.
The Owl House has received widespread acclaim from critics and viewers alike, with praise for its animation, humor, characters, voice acting, themes, emotional weight, and emphasizing LGBTQ representation more than other Disney media, including becoming the first Disney property to feature a same-sex couple in leading roles, a same-sex kiss involving lead characters, same-sex parents, and non-binary characters. The series won an award for Children's & Youth Programming at the 2021 Peabody Awards.
Premise The series centers on Luz Noceda, a 14-year-old Dominican-American human girl who accidentally stumbles upon a portal to the Demon Realm. She arrives at the Boiling Isles, an archipelago formed from the remains of a dead titan, and befriends the rebellious witch Eda Clawthorne, also known as "The Owl Lady", and her adorable demon housemate King. Despite not having magical abilities, Luz pursues her dream of becoming a witch by serving as Eda's apprentice at the Owl House and ultimately finds a new family in an unlikely setting.
In the second season, Luz attempts to return to the Human Realm, Eda tries to confront her curse, and King searches for the truth about his past while contending with the Boiling Isles' ruler, Emperor Belos, who is preparing for the mysterious "Day of Unity".
In the third and final season (labeled as specials), Luz and her friends set out to save the Boiling Isles from the evil Belos and the unpredictable Collector.
Episodes
Cast
Sarah-Nicole Robles as Luz Noceda Wendie Malick as Edalyn "Eda" Clawthorne Alex Hirsch as King Clawthorne and Hooty Mae Whitman as Amity Blight Tati Gabrielle as Willow Park Issac Ryan Brown as Gus Porter Zeno Robinson as Hunter Matthew Rhys as Emperor Belos Cissy Jones as Lilith Clawthorne Michaela Dietz as Vee Elizabeth Grullon as Camila Noceda Fryda Wolff as The Collector
Production Background
Dana Terrace began conceiving early ideas for a series about a girl learning to be a witch in late 2016. While working on DuckTales, Terrace did not feel "fulfilled artistically or emotionally", so she began to research influences and work from her college years, eventually rediscovering the works of artists such as Hieronymus Bosch and Remedios Varo, inspiring her to create a show for Disney that featured strong surreal visual elements. Terrace initially pitched the idea to both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, but neither deal went through.
In 2018, it was reported that Terrace, previously a storyboard artist for Gravity Falls and later a director of the 2017 DuckTales reboot, was creating and executive-producing an animated series, titled The Owl House, for Disney Television Animation. The series was greenlit alongside Amphibia in 2018 with an order of 19 episodes, and was set originally for a 2019 release, but delayed to 2020. Terrace would later call the decision to work with Disney as a fortuitous one stating, "I think it's important to note that Owl House would NOT be what it is if made at another studio", and cited the fact that having each episode run for 22 minutes rather than 11 is one of the reasons why it worked out so well.
Terrace is the fourth woman to create a series for Disney Television Animation, after Sue Rose (Pepper Ann), Chris Nee (Doc McStuffins), and Daron Nefcy (Star vs. the Forces of Evil).
Development Terrace said that the general lore for the series was inspired by art and storybooks by Hieronymus Bosch. According to Terrace, the hardest decision when creating the series was whether to implement potential lore elements in the series. Terrace also stated the lore of the series is "70 percent made up", with writers also drawing inspiration from books about witchcraft for spells and character names, to add depth to its lore. The Pokémon franchise served as a strong influence on the series.
Eda was the earliest character created for the show. Terrace said the character was inspired by "the women who raised me. My aunts, my Nana, and my mom, they're all in the Owl Lady." The second character created was King, who was described by Terrace as "a little guy that wants to be big", something she related to. Luz was the final main character created and was inspired by her roommate, consultant, and story artist Luz Batista. Batista agreed to let Terrace use her name for the series' main character on the condition that she be Dominican-American, which Terrace agreed to. The character's personality was inspired by "stories of each other about what dorks we were in high school", as well as parts from Terrace's childhood. Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls and then-partner of Dana Terrace, was a creative consultant on the series, where Terrace previously worked as a storyboard artist.
Several of the series' themes are inspired by Terrace's childhood. The series explores uniqueness and conformity, themes drawn from Terrace's own school years. After being mocked for drawing roadkill, she eventually found a community of like-minded peers at a new school. The series also explores the idea of getting close to fulfilling a dream, yet being unable to completely fulfill it, inspired by how Terrace was told that she wouldn't be a cartoonist, only to "[find her] own path". Hirsch said that while there was a concern with Disney Channel over the series' horror elements, Terrace nevertheless chose to incorporate them, arguing that "Disney is the full spectrum of emotions, creatures and scary things". Terrace said that Disney "allowed me to do more than I thought they would". Terrace also said that the producers "[don't] want to pull [their] punches on the show" in its horror elements, as she "loved being a little scared" as a child, though she also wanted to balance them with comedy and heartfelt moments. She described the magic elements on the show as "a framing device for the grounded emotional stories" featured in the series.
The series initially had a darker tone, as Terrace wanted to create a TV series targeted at older audiences "where things like whimsy and darkness can coexist", but had to tone it down during the first season to find a compromise between her ideas and Disney executives' wishes. She nevertheless was proud of the final product. The tone of the second season was closer to what Terrace originally intended. Following the series finale, Terrace stated that she has not ruled out the possibility of a continuation at some point in the future.
Animation The show was animated by Rough Draft Korea, Sunmin Image Pictures, and Sugarcube Animation. Terrace said that the visual style was inspired by paintings by Remedios Varo, John Bauer, and Hieronymus Bosch, as well as Russian architecture. By December 2019, the show had 120 people working on it, including those in the animation studios, and 50 staffers on the pre-production crew. Spencer Wan served as the animation supervisor during season one. See Terrace's description of Wan's role in her AMA Disney initially refused for the series to have an in-house animator, feeling Wan may have not met their "overseas pipeline", but he was eventually hired. Kofi Fiagome serves as animation supervisor for season two. Terrace also provided rough animation for three season two episodes.
Ricky Cometa served as the art director for the series. Cometa first became involved with the series when Terrace began working on the pilot, before the series was green-lit by Disney, and was approached by Terrace, a fan and friend of Cometa's because she "really wanted to work with someone who I vibed with, someone whose style I knew, that could execute the kind of weird junk I wanted to do", and Cometa agreed to work on the series due to being interested in the concept. Cometa said that he wanted to "try and show the dualities between the Demon Realm and the human realm, and with a little twist of demons and eyeballs and bones and whatnot". He also wanted some demons on the show to have non-frightening appearances, as they were supposed to represent normal people within the show. Terrace said that Luz's design was "challenging", as she struggled to create a design for Luz that didn't make her look too old or that felt too much like a costume. Cometa eventually created a t-shirt for Luz to wear that was "low key, and like a nod to all our fellow nerds out there". Cometa said that it was "fun" to design demonic versions of common locations. The animators also changed real-life elements to further distinguish the Boiling Isles from Earth, such as making the ocean purple.
On July 19, 2019, Terrace announced that TJ Hill had composed the series' score. On January 10, 2020, Hill said that the score featured "interesting and experimental sounds that [he] had a ton of fun cooking up". In the second season, Gravity Falls and Star vs. the Forces of Evil composer Brad Breeck took over as composer. By March 2020, Disney Television Animation was closed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the production crew to work on season two remotely from their homes.
Broadcast On June 10, 2019, the first trailer for the series premiered during the show's Annecy 2019 panel. It was uploaded to Disney Channel's YouTube channel a day later. The show's main title sequence was released on July 19, 2019, during the San Diego Comic-Con. A sneak peek and an official end credit sequence were released on October 4, 2019, during a panel at the New York Comic Con. The show's main title sequence for season two was released on May 17, 2021. A trailer for season two was released on June 3, 2021. On November 21, 2019, the series was renewed for a 21-episode second season prior to the first season's debut. Season one aired its 19th and final episode on August 29, 2020. On May 17, 2021, the series was renewed for a third season, which would consist of three 44-minute specials, ahead of the second season premiere. The episode order was much shorter than the 10–20 episodes that the production team was anticipating, only for Terrace to later confirm in a response to a fan's question that it would be the final season.