Dana Terrace was a storyboarder on Gravity Falls who eventually became a director for the DuckTales reboot. She took influence from anime like Utena and Pokemon, plus Tenchi Muyo which is evident as Eda's design is a clear copy of Ryoko. After working on DuckTales, Dana pitched the idea of a fantasy/adventure to Disney in 2018, and was greenlit at the same time as Amphibia, of which both shows are secretly in a shared universe.
Season One came out in 2020 with 19 episodes. Season Two was given 21 episodes in 2021. Season Three was trimmed to just a trio of hour-long specials instead of 20 regular episodes. Disney roped in the show as its serialized nature wasn't bringing in successful ratings. Part of the problem with this was because of episode leaks, although the major reason Disney cut the series short was largely due to the backlash from conservative parents on the show's open depictions of LGBTQ+ characters and all-inclusive nature which didn't fit into the company's standards at the time. This lead to a lot censoring of non-heteronormative material in foreign markets despite the show's strong fan following for it being all-inclusive.
The cast is vastly diverse with many professional voice actors and some with minimal voice over experience. Sarah Nicole Robles is the main character of Luz who only had some past credits in Disney dubs. Wendie Malick is Eda who had decades of experience in sitcoms, as well animation voice overs in Bojack Horseman and The Emperor's New Groove. Gravity Falls creator Alex Hirsch pulls double-duty as both King and Hooty. Tinkerbell herself Mae Whitman plays Amity. Anime VA regular Zeno Robinson is Hunter. Matthew Rhys is Bellos who later went on to do voices for Tuca And Bertie as well as the Watchmen duology. Cissy Jones is Lillith and afterwards played Elita-1 in Transformers. Michaela Deitz who played Amethyst on Steven Universe is the shapeshifting Vee. The Collector's actor Fryda Wolff has indentified herself as bisexual. Non-binary actor Avi Roque portrays the similarly non-binary Raine. Also included were Tati Gabrielle as Willow and Issac Ryan Brown as Gus.
Dana Terrace's original pilot had Amity being a witch disguised in the human world that Luz fell for and follows to the Boiling Islands. Luz gets stuck in the Demon Realm helping Eda escape her sister Lillith that here is the principal of Hexside. In the original story, Eda secretly works for Bellos who wants her to bring in the one human for him to inspect.
The main synopsis of The Owl House is that it takes place in another dimension called the Demon Realm. Luz is an Afro-Latina who moved to Gravesfield, Ohio so her mother Camila could get medical help for sick father. After her father's death, Luz is sent to a neurodivergent summer camp as she has ADHD. Instead of getting on the bus to camp, she winds up following an owl into an abandoned house which leads to The Boiling Isles that are the remains of a dead Titan where she meets Eda Clawthorne, the Owl Lady, a witch who promises to teach Luz magic. Eda had adopted a young creature she named King who thinks he is the lost king of demons. Luz attends the Hexside School where she befriends Amity, a stuck up girl who eventually changed her ways and formed a romantic relationship with Luz that recognized herself as bisexual.
The Boiling Isles is run by Emperor Bellos, who in reality is Phillip Whitebane, a witch hunter from the 1600s whose brother Caleb supposedly fell for a witch named Evelyn. Phillip makes clones of Caleb called Grimwalkers to act as his Golden Guard, the latest one of which is Hunter. Belos also stays alive through methods of cloning, plus consuming Palismans. Belos can inhabit bodies by splitting his soul. It’s possible that every split makes each version a totally different Belos, meaning the real one has been dead for years. He became emperor after setting up the Coven system. Each coven is broken up into 9 different systems: Emperor’s, Abomination, Bard, Beast Keeping, Construction, Healing, Illusion, Oracle, Plant, and Potions. Belos established these to utilize Titan's blood on the Boiling Isles which would allow him to open the portal door back to the human world.
Wild magic is the only kind outlawed by Belos because he couldn't control it. Evelyn was a wild witch that seduced Caleb, as well as being Eda’s ancestor. Flapjack was probably Evelyn’s Palisman. It's strange that in the series finale Eda eventually sets up her own school of wild magic which is paradoxical to her philosophy of being an individual as passing on what she’s learned can conform others into her own lifestyle. Eda resides in what's called The Owl House that was originally used by her father who fashioned Palismans. The house is inhabited by a bizarre owl demon with a long neck attached to the front door called Hooty
The enigmatic character of the Collector is part of a cosmic group called The Archivists who trapped him in the Demon Realm. The Archivists removed all the Titans because their power cancels out their own, so they either did this as an act of preservation or just plain old spite. King’s father was the last remaining Titan who took his hatred for The Archivists out on The Collector and left him on an island that was really his hand sealed off in another dimension with Titan Trappers that worshipped The Collector as a god. This is where King learns of his true heritage as a titan. Bellos finds The Collector's prision in a disc in his early days as Phillip because of a trip that Luz and Lillith took to the past in what is referred to a Time Pools.
The entire plot of The Owl House is one giant causality loop. A future timeline that only exists because someone went back in the past to set it up in the first place. Luz and Lillith were supposed to find the Time Pools, go back and meet the younger Phillip Whitebane, which in turn lead him to The Collector. This isn’t a fate vs. destiny debate because it's on a fixed timeline. Even though this timeline has been established, it’s possible to change it, and equally possible that Luz and Lillith ended up in a completely different reality when they travelled back to the future/present.
In a causality loop, even in a fixed timeline, it can be diverted. Chaos is a major factor in its creation, and the forces of order and chaos are constantly pulling at each other to close the loop or collapse it, either effect would replace it with a different timeline. When these forces are working against each other, reality can be radically altered in numerous ways. People who died can be brought back to life in one way or another, as well as someone temporarily gaining powers that they never had before. Bellos likely hired Lillith to begin with to keep her close so he could manipulate her into going back in time in the first place, a possibility he learned through oracle magic.
The Owl House utilizes the concept the Time Pools very well as they work under the principle of chronomancy, not time travel. Chronomancy is the magical manipulation of temporal energy, whereas time travel is the scientific and occasionally natural navigation of timestreams. Chronomancy is largely paradox free, even though order and chaos will still tug at both ends to cause a probability collapse. How this would ultimately resolve can only be answered in whatever aftermath there is upon its conclusion.
Amity begins the series disliking Luz because she only cared about social status. This was changed when she realized Luz was sincere in her honesty, and how wrong her parents were when it came to treating her fellow students. Amity was originally childhood friends with Willow but ditched her when pressured by her mother. Willow’s abandonment by the other students helped her discover the strength of her inner self to overcome her status quo. Amity saw this and left Boscha’s highbrow crowd to embrace this philosophy, which also lead to her becoming attracted to Luz.
In the beginning, The Titan itself had the mysterious Bat Queen as its Palisman, even though her size doesn't compare to that of the Palisman which act as a witch's familiar or animus figure. When Luz finally meets the Titan near the end of the series, it is shown that he has a demon growing out his eye that looks like Hooty, even though what the connection between the two is never explained. All magic on the Boiling Isles stems from what’s left of the Titan’s spirit. Evelyn found the Titan’s missing eye and used it to make the portal door. The Titan’s spirit exists in the In Between, a subspace within the Demon Realm which acts as the portal dimension that leads to Earth.
The Owl House has a huge theme of neurodiversity. The Coven system is an allegory for conformity, and Luz’s desire to study more than one form of magic showcases her lack of being able to focus on a single goal. This is partially due to her ADHD and lack of foresight. Luz’s sense of alienation is why she adapts to the Demon Realm so well. Her anxiety also drives her while holding her back at the same time which prevents her from fitting in with her more conventional peers.
This series also manages to spotlight on living with a disability. Eda's curse is a living example of this as it prevents her from using her magic that she keeps boasting about, and she’s afraid her beast mode might harm any of her loved ones. It could be seen as someone recovering from substance abuse, except this is a real curse and Eda needs to take medication to keep it in check. The Owl Beast curse also prematurely aged Eda physically which is a good way of illustrating how a handicap can limit a person's lifestyle.
One thing that The Owl House shined brightest was in its transgender representation. Eda's old friend Raine Whispers is non-binary, but they broke up with her when Eda didn't open up about her curse. Eda tried to rekindle their relationship, despite the fact that Raine was secretly leading a rebellion against Bellos all while being a coven head. Non-binary characters aren't that abundant in most TV series, but here they are given the respect and dignity that any binary person would.
LGBTQ+ was equally given as much attention in the series. In the beginning, Luz was shown as heterosexual, even though over time she slowly gains feeling for Amity who is initially implied to be a lesbian. The two of them officially become a couple halfway through Season 2, and their relationship grows from there, including one of the first animated same-sex kisses. Unfortunately, their romance gets more airtime in the Disney Chibi shorts than the actual Owl House TV show possibly due to the series being cut short. Willow's fathers are also a fine example of gay delineation. It’s likely that gender and racial diversity in the Demon Realm wasn't considered a negative issue which might have been part of Belos’ puritan crusade to rid the world of witches.
Trauma and PTSD are also major factors that were brought to the forefront in The Owl House. Luz is still reeling from the death of her father and trying to be accepted in school, while her mother Camila also had trouble growing up and is now a widow doubled with being a single parent who is defensive about her only child. Hunter is shocked that his entire existence is a lie as he was created solely to be part of his uncle's evil scheme, and he deals with it by running away to find comfort with those who understood about being critically distraught. Willow and Gus first bonded over both of them being social outcasts. Eda is constantly stressed that she can't use her magic anymore and has to make a living selling human junk since she doesn't trust anyone in authority. Lillith is stricken with guilt when she reveals it was her that cursed Eda, even though she now shares the curse that also causes her to fret adjusting to her new handicap. King has identity issues since his origins were at first a mystery, and after he learns he was really a titan, he worries that he won't live up to his father's legacy. The Collector had it worse than anyone as his own people tricked him into being isolated and as they snatched up all his young Titan friends, then he got sealed away by King's dad and reduced to a mere shadow who trusted Bellos to release him, only to be betrayed again despite all his reality-warping powers.
The Owl House's tragically brief time on general streaming TV was enough to make it notable among regular Disney watchers and its theme of inclusion to those some would refer to as weirdos. Even though they stick together, the weirdos' wish to be understood and accepted is a universal message that anyone intelligent enough should be able to pick up on.
