Emilio Estevez never thought he'd return to the role of The Mighty Ducks' Gordon Bombay

By Marah Eakin  |  March 24, 2021 | 2:00pm
TV Features The Mighty Ducks

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When The Mighty Ducks came out in 1992, Emilio Estevez was coming off a hot streak in Hollywood. He’d earned his spot in the Brat Pack by appearing in movies like The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire before popping up in movies like Stakeout, Young Guns, and Young Guns II. Ducks gave him what few Brat Packers had: a stable, longterm job in a crossover market. Granted, The Mighty Ducks was a kid movie, but it was one with heart, and one that ultimately emerged as one of Disney’s most successful franchises. (It birthed a whole NHL team, for crying out loud.)

Still, when Estevez last played Ducks coach Gordon Bombay in 1996's D3: The Mighty Ducks, he thought he was done with the role. He was getting more into directing his own indie films, something he’d do a number of times in the decades to come. Then, Disney+ came calling.

Now, Estevez has strapped on his skates and—as he tells The A.V. Club in the video above—re-established his very shaky skating legs to reassume the role of Gordon Bombay for The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. A series meant for both fans of the original movies and their kids, Game Changers tells the story of a kid cut from the now massive Ducks organization and his mom, played by Lauren Graham, who goes viral after she rather publicly tells off the coach and her fellow Ducks parents.

In the video above, The A.V. Club talks to Estevez about what he saw in Bombay when he took the part in the early ‘90s, as well as what he learned from producing the new show during a global pandemic.

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers premieres on Disney+ March 26.

 
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