diff --git a/tests/test_completion/colon_example.py b/tests/test_completion/colon_example.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..70292385d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_completion/colon_example.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import typer
+
+image_desc = [
+    ("alpine:latest", "latest alpine image"),
+    ("alpine:hello", "fake image: for testing"),
+    ("nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04", ""),
+]
+
+
+def _complete(incomplete: str) -> str:
+    for image, desc in image_desc:
+        if image.startswith(incomplete):
+            yield image, desc
+
+
+app = typer.Typer()
+
+
+@app.command()
+def image(name: str = typer.Option(autocompletion=_complete)):
+    typer.echo(name)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    app()
diff --git a/tests/test_completion/test_completion_option_colon.py b/tests/test_completion/test_completion_option_colon.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f106eca862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_completion/test_completion_option_colon.py
@@ -0,0 +1,219 @@
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+
+from . import colon_example as mod
+
+
+def test_script():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, "--name", "DeadPool"],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    assert result.returncode == 0
+    assert "DeadPool" in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_bash_all():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_bash",
+            "COMP_WORDS": "colon_example.py --name ",
+            "COMP_CWORD": "2",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_bash_partial():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_bash",
+            "COMP_WORDS": "colon_example.py --name alpine ",
+            "COMP_CWORD": "2",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_bash_single():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_bash",
+            "COMP_WORDS": "colon_example.py --name alpine:hell ",
+            "COMP_CWORD": "2",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" not in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_zsh_all():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_zsh",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name ",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine\\\\:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine\\\\:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda\\\\:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_zsh_partial():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_zsh",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name alpine",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine\\\\:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine\\\\:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda\\\\:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_zsh_single():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_zsh",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name alpine:hell",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine\\\\:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine\\\\:latest" not in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda\\\\:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_powershell_all():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_powershell",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name ",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_WORD_TO_COMPLETE": "",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_powershell_partial():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_powershell",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name alpine",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_WORD_TO_COMPLETE": "alpine",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_powershell_single():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_powershell",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name alpine:hell",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_WORD_TO_COMPLETE": "alpine:hell",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" not in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_pwsh_all():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_pwsh",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name",
+        },
+    )
+
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_pwsh_partial():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_pwsh",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name alpine",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_WORD_TO_COMPLETE": "alpine",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+def test_completion_colon_pwsh_single():
+    result = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-m", "coverage", "run", mod.__file__, " "],
+        capture_output=True,
+        encoding="utf-8",
+        env={
+            **os.environ,
+            "_COLON_EXAMPLE.PY_COMPLETE": "complete_pwsh",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_ARGS": "colon_example.py --name alpine:hell",
+            "_TYPER_COMPLETE_WORD_TO_COMPLETE": "alpine:hell",
+        },
+    )
+    assert "alpine:hello" in result.stdout
+    assert "alpine:latest" not in result.stdout
+    assert "nvidia/cuda:10.0-devel-ubuntu18.04" not in result.stdout
+
+
+# TODO: tests for complete_fish
diff --git a/typer/_completion_classes.py b/typer/_completion_classes.py
index 71ba031860..f0bb89c3cc 100644
--- a/typer/_completion_classes.py
+++ b/typer/_completion_classes.py
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ def escape(s: str) -> str:
                 .replace("'", "''")
                 .replace("$", "\\$")
                 .replace("`", "\\`")
+                .replace(":", r"\\:")
             )
 
         # TODO: Explore replicating the new behavior from Click, pay attention to