Meet the Cast
Hazel
The MastermindEvery great heist film has a mastermind—the organizer who brings the team together and comes up with the plan. Watership Down is basically a series of heists (or, okay, adventures),...
Bigwig (a.k.a. Thlayli)
The EnforcerIf you watch a lot of heist movies, you may recognize Bigwig's type: the big, strong guy (er, rabbit), the one whose job is to fight. He's the enforcer, the hired muscle, the goon. Yeah...
General Woundwort
The EnemyIf we were to make a violent video game with rabbits—Grand Theft Bunny, Rabbit Kombat, or Call of Bunny: Black Rabbit of Inlé—we might make Woundwort the main character because he's v...
Efrafan Rabbits
Captain CampionCampion is one of those rabbits with good qualities who just happen to be on the wrong side. In that way, he's most like Bigwig at the beginning or Captain Holly (hey, they have the...
Fiver
The MysticIn a heist film, there's always a character who has psychic or mystical powers—and here, that character is Fiver. Wait, what? Heist films never have psychic/mystical characters? Oh, in...
Blackberry and Dandelion
The Inventor and the StorytellerUsually, heist teams are made up of specialists: the safe-cracker, the gymnast, the mastermind, the werewolf, the hot one, etc. Hazel's team follows this trope prett...
Hazel's Crew
Watership Down is like one of those war movies in which a team of people get put together for a dangerous mission, like The Dirty Dozen or Inglourious Basterds. (In fact, in our mind we often call...
Kehaar
Kehaar is our favorite type of rabbit: the seagull type. Kehaar is the black-headed seagull that Hazel's rabbits befriend. Kehaar shows up on their doorstep wounded and unhappy. But as the narrator...
Sandleford Warren Rabbits
The ThrearahIn Watership Down, the Threarah is maybe the second-best Chief Rabbit—after Hazel, of course—and his warren ends up exterminated. Which is a way of showing that it's hard out there...
Cowslip and his Warren
Think of everything good about the rabbits in this book, especially Hazel—now take them all away and you've got Cowslip and his rabbits. Cowslip might as well wear a sign around his neck saying "...
El-ahrairah and other Mythic Figures
This novel features several short rabbit folktales, almost all featuring El-ahrairah tricking some antagonist, whether that's god's annoying helper (Prince Rainbow) or the war-mongering king (King...
Humans
Mean, Stupid, Uncaring, or All Three?When we meet a human character in Watership Down, that's the question we ask ourselves: "are these humans mean, stupid, uncaring, or some combination of the thr...