The influence of Dungeon Crawler Carl has officially reached the animal kingdom. The Oregon Coast Aquarium just welcomed a new giant Pacific Octopus and named it after a certain changeling that fans of the series will recognize: Juicebox.
While it’s certainly interesting that Matt Dinniman’s characters have already taken root in my local aquarium, according to the report from Oregon Live, this is actually the second Octopus to get named after DCC. Juicebox will be sharing the aquarium with a 22.5-pound male Octopus called Donut, after Princess Donut herself.
The aquarists who chose Juicebox’s name told Oregon Live it was because of octopuses’ inherent ability to change their appearance to blend in. For those not familiar with the books, Juicebox is a changeling that is able to shift into various forms at will. For additional context (and minor spoiler!), Juicebox does shift into Ursula from The Little Mermaid at one point in the story, so the transition to an octopus isn’t that big of a stretch.
Juicebox the Octopus is now available to visit at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport and will stay there for about a year before being released back to the reef. As someone who has regularly visited that aquarium, I can attest to the quality of their Octopus Den. And as a fan of the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, this little tidbit of news is a great excuse to go back and visit again.
Naming an octopus after a character from a popular franchise is certainly just a marketing stunt to get more people to visit the aquarium, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful. The fact that Juicebox got added to the aquarium just as another octopus named Anakin was released just makes it even better. Will Dungeon Crawler Carl ever be as big as Star Wars? Probably not, but the octopus trends seem to be heading in that direction.
The sudden rise from popular LitRPG book series to octopus fame is par for the course for Dungeon Crawler Carl in 2026. This year alone, the eighth book is coming out — along with tabletop games and an entire toy line — and a TV adaptation was confirmed at Peacock with Seth McFarlane in charge.
