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Update 8:22 p.m. ET: Disney+ has now revealed a first glimpse at Emilio Estevez back on the ice for its upcoming sequel series The Mighty Ducks. In addition to offering a new photo of Estevez back in his hockey gear as Coach Gordon Bombay, the streaming service also provided a first-glimpse at the brand new team he’ll be shepherding for the 10-episode follow-up to the hit ’90s film series. We can feel the “quack, quack, quack” chants coming on already.
NO. CHILL. 🚨❄🏒 #EmilioEstevez is BACK as Gordon Bombay! Check out this photo from production on The Mighty Ducks, an Original Series coming soon to #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/SSVEDUuO4w
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) February 13, 2020
Previously 3:00 p.m. ET: The Ducks have officially got their coach back. Emilio Estevez will return to the hockey rink a Coach Gordon Bombay for the new The Mighty Ducks series on Disney+, TV Guide has confirmed.
In a statement, Estevez said of the news, “Once a Duck, always a Duck! And after 25 years, I am delighted to lace up my skates, put on Coach Bombay’s jacket and return to play the iconic character for this new chapter in The Mighty Ducks franchise. Likewise, I am thrilled to return to my old stomping grounds with my friends at Disney and Steve Brill, the original creator of the franchise, to join them on their exciting new platform, Disney+.”
The Mighty Ducks is expected to run for 10 episodes and is based upon the beloved ’90s movies of the same name. It will be set in present-day Minnesota at a time when the title hockey team is a powerhouse program instead of the struggling band of misfits it started out as before they perfected the V-formation.
“Emilio’s always been open to revisiting the character because he loves the character and we loved working together 30 years ago, if you can believe it – 29 years ago,” Mighty Ducks writer Steve Brill told The Quack Attack podcast, who first broke the news of his casting, earlier this week. “So it really was a question of figuring out how to do a show that, you know, honored the character but updated it, and essentially drops in where he is today and what happened to him in the last 25 years or so. We filled in all those blanks. I’m not going to give away a lot of his backstory or what happened to him, but let’s just say he’s had a rough go of it since Ducks 3. He went up, he went down, just like life – you have ups and downs. And when we find him at the beginning of our show, he’s more on the down. But he’s Gordon Bombay, so we’ll see what happens.”
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The Mighty Ducks
Estevez will be joined by Gilmore Girls alum Lauren Graham, whose casting was previously announced. She’ll play Alex, the mother of a 12-year-old boy named Evan (Good Boys‘ Brady Noon) who is cut from the Ducks. She will try to put together a rag-tag team of her own, sort of like what Gordon did when the Ducks first started quacking. Per the show’s official description, Alex and Evan will “challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of competitive youth sports,” in addition to learning to love playing the game all over again, with the help of Coach Bombay.
The Mighty Ducks film trilogy’s original creator, writer, and executive producer Steve Brill will serve as executive producer of the new series, which he co-created alongside showrunners Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa. James Griffiths and Michael Spiller will executive produce, and Griffiths will direct. Estevez and Graham, who currently stars on NBC’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, will also serve as co-executive producers.
Production on the series begins this month in Vancouver.
The Mighty Ducks premieres on Disney+ later in 2020. Find out what else is available on the streaming service.
Emilio Estevez