Ok, not that Duck Dynasty. Rather, the one from the 90s movie franchise, The Mighty Ducks.
Word broke this week that the new Disney+ network is going to resurrect the Quack Attack in a new series and that Coach Bombay will be back on the bench. Emilio Estevez, who portrayed Coach Gordon Bombay in all three Mighty Ducks movies is returning for the series which is said to be ten episodes.
Slash Film revealed that the series will revolve around a 13-year-old boy who gets kicked off the junior division Mighty Ducks team. The boy and his mom decided to start their own team from the ground up with players, a place to play and a coach, which potential spoiler alert, would be Coach Bombay. Or perhaps, this newly constructed team will face Bombay and the Ducks.
While the release date is still unknown, production allegedly is set to begin in Vancouver in March.
The first film, The Mighty Ducks, was released by Disney in 1992 and raked in over $6 million it’s opening weekend. ($53+ million overall) Bombay was a lawyer whom when arrested for DUI, is court ordered to coach a youth hockey team. The film was so successful that Disney decided not only to follow up with two more films, but actually created an NHL expansion team housed in Ananheim, CA. in 1993. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim even sported the same bright purple and teal uniforms until 2006. When the team was sold to new owners, their name changed to just the Anaheim Ducks and the uniforms turned to orange and black. The change is apparently what they needed as the won the most coveted trophy in all of sports, The Stanley Cup, in 2006-2007.
D2: They Mighty Ducks (1994), Bombay goes on to coach Team USA Hockey, built of some of the Ducks team and in D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) the boys are tested again during their time in a high ranking prep school and facing the obligatory snotty opposition players.
So what’s happened since then? I haven’t heard Emilio Estevez’s name in years. since D3 in ’96, sightings have been scarce with only a few television roles including a cameo on his brother Charlie Sheen‘s show, Two and a Half Men in 2008.
What about the rest of the Mighty Ducks team? A few of them you might recognize.
Joshua Jackson, who played the adorable Charlie Conway, has had a great career going on to star in such things as Dawson’s Creek, Fringe and most recently The Affair.
Elden Henson, who portrayed Fulton Reed, went on to a bunch of small TV roles, played Pollux in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt 1&2, and perhaps most noteable, Foggy Nelson in the Netflix series, The Defenders, Jessica Jones, Luke Jones and Daredevil.
On the sad side of things, just days after word about this developing series happened, social media was flooded with the mug shot of Shaun Weiss. He was the bubbly chubby Mighty Ducks goaltender, Greg “Goldie” Goldberg. He was the one the character that always made me smile the most. He was the one that I think of when I think of the “knucklepuck” and the “Flying V”. While still taking on small roles over the years, the last handful have not been kind to Weiss. He was arrested on January 26th for allegedly breaking into a home and a car while under the influence of meth. His mug shot, is heartbreaking and unrecognizable.
Right now, Estevez is the only name confirmed from the previous casts, but writer Steven Brill who wrote all three films and produced two is on board.
While I am a fan of the Mighty Ducks franchise, and the hockey team (I actually worked for their AHL farm team for a year too), I am curious, hopefully and a tiny bit frightened as to what this series will become. For fans of the films and the sport, I’m hoping it will be a fun trip down memory lane. For those who think Disney ruins everything they touch lately (ie: Star Wars, Marvel, etc) I hope we are proven wrong to any of those theories. In the meantime, all three Might Ducks movies are available on Disney+
