New Looney Tunes

Production

After The Looney Tunes Show ended production in 2013, concepts for a new show featuring the Looney Tunes began to be discussed. At the time, the idea of a reboot focused mainly on Bugs Bunny emerged, and in March 2014, it was announced that the reboot would be known as Wabbit or Bugs! depending in the region. Sam Register, promoted to president of Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Digital Series a month prior, became supervising producer for the series. The animation was done by Yearim and Rough Draft Studios from South Korea (the latter only working on the first season) and Snipple Animation from the Philippines.

The aim of the reboot was for its cartoons to match the tone of the Looney Tunes shorts in their earlier days. This led to the characters returning to their slapstick comedy roots, but with producers seeking to avoid their clichés, such as the anvil gag. The show's production team placed their emphasis on writing original stories, as well as devising "modern heavy objects to cause pain", according to producer Erik Kuska, with each episode featuring a few shorts in which one or a number of characters became caught up in a situation that they would handle in their own personal way. Despite that, some classic objects can occasionally be seen, such as boulders or safes. Similarly, some classic expressions can be heard, such as Bugs forgetting to "make that left turn at Albuquerque", or uttering "of course you know, this means war". The characters themselves saw some alterations to their appearances, with some also reverting to personality traits they originally had in their earliest appearances. For example, Daffy Duck was reverted to his original screwball personality from his early shorts.

The first season of the show was known as Wabbit and focused on the misadventures of Bugs Bunny, with a supporting cast of Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote and Porky Pig, and cameo appearances by Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, the Tasmanian Devil and Michigan J. Frog. Like his early shorts, Bugs mostly finds himself in a battle of wits with opponents either because they seek to hurt him or have done something to wreck his peaceful life. The first season saw the introduction of a few new characters to the Looney Tunes franchise, many of them being new villains Bugs faces.

According to Kuska, the focus on new enemies for Bugs to face off against was described as allowing him to do his "best when he's up against a really good adversary". As a result of the inclusion of new villains, Kuska felt that Elmer Fudd might not be "the man" anymore, having often been a common rival that Bugs fought with in many shorts, despite appearing later on in the series.

New characters

Among the new characters introduced in this show are:

Squeaks the Squirrel – A red squirrel who is Bugs' neighbor and best friend, whose speech initially consisted only of squeaking sounds (occasionally giving way to intelligible speech in season 3).

Bigfoot – A childlike sasquatch who tends to follow Bugs, usually calling him "lady" (or occasionally "ma'am"), much to Bugs' frustration.

The Barbarian – An unnamed barbarian that feuds with Bugs.

Krakos – The Barbarian's polar bear mount. His name is a play on the Greek mythical figure Kratos.

Boyd – A lovesick bird.

Cal – A huge man who considers himself the best at everything.

Carl the Grim Rabbit – A Grim Reaper look-alike with rabbit ears and a carrot sythe who is trying to reap Bugs's soul.

Claudette Dupri – A female fox spy who speaks with a heavy French accent. She serves as Pepé Le Pew's partner.

Dr. Clovenhoof – A sheep scientist who always bring Bugs to his Lab to show him off his new inventions.

Eagle Scout – A lonely eagle scoutmaster who is a talented rapper and longs for friends.

Elliot Sampson – A bobcat scoutmaster and businessman.

Hazmats – As Bugs puts it, they are a group of "highly trained government officials" in hazmat suits that often pursue or hunt him, Squeaks, and Bigfoot, as well as Agents Dupri and Le Pew.

Voice cast

Main cast

Jeff Bergman – Bugs Bunny / Elmer Fudd / Sylvester the Cat / Foghorn Leghorn / Michigan J. Frog / Mac Gopher / Giant

Dee Bradley Baker – Daffy Duck / Squeaks Squirrel / Frisky Puppy / Carl the Grim Rabbit ("The Grim Rabbit") / Krakos the Polar Bear / Shifty Rat / Mannermaid Enforski / Justin

Bob Bergen – Porky Pig / Tweety Bird / Gabby Goat / Clyde Bunny

Kath Soucie – Lola Bunny / Sniffles / Claudette Dupri / Pampreen Perdy

Maurice LaMarche – Yosemite Sam (season 1)

Fred Tatasciore – Yosemite Sam (seasons 2 and 3) / Carl the Grim Rabbit ("Grim on Vacation" - onwards)

J. P. Karliak – Wile E. Coyote / King Nutininkommen

Paul Julian – Road Runner (archive audio)

Jim Cummings – Tasmanian Devil / Blacque Jacque Shellacque / Liam Luxurious

Eric Bauza – Agent P. / Marvin the Martian / Hubie (season 3) / Bertie (season 3) / Rock Hardcase / Cal

Supporting cast

Jeff Bennett – Hubie Rat / Bertie Mouse (both in Wabbit!) / Dr. Clovenhoof / Horace the Horse / Winter Stag

Matt Craig – Cecil Turtle / Tosh Gopher / Marc Antony Bulldog / Count Bloodcount / Hazmats / Trey Hugger / Paul Perdy / Pacifico Mule / Minnesota Rats / Curt Martin / Pizza Guy / Red Omaha / Mrs. Troll

John Kassir – Pete Puma / Claude Cat / John

Matthew Mercer – Bigfoot

Candi Milo – Granny / Witch Hazel / Ivana / Bear Scout / Weasel Scout / Mrs. Allen / Phoebe

Dino Andrade – Speedy Gonzales

Special guest stars

Snoop Dogg – Himself

Axl Rose – Himself

Sean Astin – Himself

Additional voices

Carlos Alazraqui – Leslie P. Lilylegs / Shameless O. Scanty / Elliot Sampson Bobcat / Tad Tucker / Rick

Diedrich Bader – Reginald St. Archibald

Steve Blum – Jack / Barbarian

Jessica DiCicco – Petunia Pig

John DiMaggio – Slugsworthy the First

Keith Ferguson – Viktor

Grey Griffin – Vera Vulture / Millicent

Jared Harris – Asteroid

Richard Steven Horvitz – Impkin the Pumpkin King

Mikey Kelley – Boyd

Matthew Yang King – Raccoon Scout

Jack McBrayer – Yosemite Jack

Daran Norris – Sir Littlechin / Punkinhead Martin / DarkBat / Johnny Grambus / King

Kevin Michael Richardson – King Thes / Snorts

Tara Strong – Miss Cougar

Jim Ward – Squint Eatswood

"Weird Al" Yankovic – Weird and Al

Cedric Yarbrough – Eagle Scout

Lance Henriksen – Ironbootay

India de Beaufort – Foxy Foxworth

Mark Hamill – Hans Hamster

Voice directors

Charlie Adler (season 1)

Collette Sunderman (seasons 2 and 3)

Broadcast

Wabbit premiered on September 21, 2015, on Cartoon Network and on Boomerang beginning October 5, 2015, then went on hiatus for over a year and return on April 7, 2017. The series premiered on November 2 on Boomerang in Australia and New Zealand and on Boomerang in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It premiered on November 6, 2015, on Teletoon in Canada and debuted on December 19 on Boomerang in the Middle East and Africa. In India, the series premiered on Pogo TV on December 19, 2015. The series premiered on January 17, 2016, on Cartoon Network Arabic in the Middle East.

New episodes began being broadcast on Boomerang, starting April 7, 2017.

Season 2 premiered on Boomerang UK on September 4, 2017.

The entire first season is available on Netflix in Canada.

The show was available on the Boomerang premium subscription service until it shut down in 2024. As of July 4, 2020, the show is available for streaming on Max in the United States. However, a few episodes from seasons 1 and 2 and the entire third season are not yet on the platform.

Home media

The first half of Season 1 of Wabbit was released onto DVD on April 26, 2016, in the United States. Despite being half of a season, the DVD is subtitled, Hare-Raising Tales. The DVD contains the first 26 episodes (52 segments) but is labeled on the side as Season 1 – Part 1. The DVD contains episodes 23–26 which did not air in the United States until April 7, 2017. Disregarding the show's European name, Wabbit: Season 1 – Part 1 was also released on June 15, 2016, in Australia, and on July 25, 2016, in the United Kingdom.