Looney Tunes Fans Are Rallying Behind Another Canceled Warner Bros. Musical, and This Time They Want a ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Repeat

Warner Bros.’ habit of shelving finished or nearly finished animated projects has become one of the more frustrating running storylines in recent Hollywood memory. Fans watched it happen with ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ a completed film that spent over a year in limbo before finally landing a theatrical release, and that eventual turnaround has left a lot of animation fans hopeful that persistence can actually pay off.

That hope is exactly what’s fueling a fresh online campaign this week, this time centered on a very different kind of Looney Tunes project. Unlike the live-action hybrid of ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ this one would have marked the first-ever full-length musical built around Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the rest of the classic cast.

The film in question is ‘Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical,’ which was reportedly canceled after being worked on as recently as 2024. Character designer Dave Alvarez has now spoken out about the project, revealing it featured musical performances from Eric Bauza and calling on fans directly to help save it.

Alvarez shared the details in a post on X, writing that he worked on the film in 2024 as character designer and special poser, and that it included what he called glorious musical moments performed by Bauza before the project was, in his words, unceremoniously canceled. He capped the post by urging the internet to take up another cause, tagging it with the hashtag SaveByeByeBunny.

The film’s musical pedigree behind the scenes was notably strong even before Alvarez’s post. The screenplay and lyrics came from Emmy winner Ariel Dumas of ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,’ while the music and orchestration were handled by Tom Kitt, a Pulitzer Prize, Tony, and Grammy winner known for his work on ‘Next to Normal.’

Eric Bauza’s involvement adds another layer of intrigue to the campaign. Bauza went on to voice Wile E. Coyote in the eventually-released ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ and had reportedly booked both Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny for ‘Bye Bye Bunny’ after a singing audition, meaning fans already know exactly what voice would have anchored the project’s musical numbers.

Development on the film had continued in some form as late as February 2023, when head of story Michael Herrera wrapped his work, before the project was ultimately confirmed canceled in August 2024. Alvarez has previously said the film’s redesigned characters were intended to pay homage to Chuck Jones’ style of animation from the latter half of the 1950s through the 1960s, giving the project a distinct visual identity separate from other recent Looney Tunes efforts.

Given how the ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ saga eventually played out, the timing of this renewed push for ‘Bye Bye Bunny’ feels far from coincidental. Whether Warner Bros. or another distributor ultimately decides to revisit the shelved musical remains to be seen, but the online momentum building around the hashtag suggests fans aren’t ready to let this one quietly disappear.

For a studio that has already watched one canceled Looney Tunes project turn into an unlikely success story, reviving ‘Bye Bye Bunny’ might not be as far-fetched as it once seemed. It’s shaping up to be the next real test of just how far that fan goodwill actually extends.

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