The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, with Emilio Estevez as the coach of an underdog youth hockey team, is on Disney Plus March 26. Estevez, who plays Gordon Bombay, is an executive producer too.
Set in Minnesota, a player on a fearsome youth hockey team is cut and he and his mother, played by Lauren Graham, set out to build their own team of misfits, with an assist from coach Gordon.
Creator Steve Brill approached Estevez a couple years ago about bringing back Mighty Ducks, which was a film franchise in the 1990s. “I said, ‘Well, sure, if we can capture the magic of the first films, the magic of the franchise,’ ” Estevez said at the TCA Winter Press Tour. “ ‘If we can create a cinematic experience and not just try to sort of cash in on the nostalgia aspect of it.’ And I think that's ultimately what we’ve done.”
Brill is an executive producer too, along with Cathy Yuspa, Josh Goldsmith and Michael Spiller. Yuspa and Goldsmith are the showrunners. A married couple with kids, Yuspa and Goldsmith aimed to make a series about kids playing sports just for fun and for the sake of teamwork.
“We've just had so many experiences with our kids, with parents out there who just put so much pressure on their kids,” Yuspa said. “That's what we felt like was the heart of the show--can't kids play sports for fun anymore?”
Lauren Graham is a co-executive producer.
