Mickey’s first cartoon, Steamboat Willie – a roughly eight-minute black-and-white cartoon released in 1928 – entered the public domain from 1 January 2024.

Two landmark US copyright law reforms in the 20th century, both following extensive lobbying by the Walt Disney Company, pushed that long-awaited milestone back by decades.

On Monday, indie filmmakers Jamie Bailey and Simon Phillips released the trailer for Mickey’s Mouse Trap, a brutal slasher film which puts Mickey in the role of the killer.

Another filmmaker, Steven LaMorte, has announced a similar horror-comedy project where a sadistic mouse tortures passengers on a ferry, Variety reports.

Meanwhile, a game development studio has announced a survival horror game where players eliminate Mickey-inspired rodents — which has quickly become controversial due to apparent neo-Nazi references, according to VICE.

In a statement, Disney has said it will “continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorised uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters”.