Whoa, 'Darkwing Duck' And 'DuckTales' Don't Exist In The Same Universe

By Ethan AndertonSept. 12, 2016 8:00 am EST

Let's get dangerous. That's the tagline uttered by the caped crusader known as Darkwing Duck. The crimefighting mallard hit the airwaves in the early 90s, shortly after Disney's other duck-centric animated series DuckTales went off the air and headed into theaters with its own movie, DuckTales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. Since both the shows hailed from Disney, had anthropomorphic ducks, and shared two characters, many assumed that Darkwing Duck was a spin-off of DuckTales. However, the creator of Darkwing Duck has just confirmed that's not the case.

So why isn't Darkwing Duck connected to DuckTales? Find out after the jump.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter in honor of the 25th anniversary of Darkwing Duck, creator Tad Stones finally cleared the air about whether or not Darkwing Duck was a spin-off of DuckTales. After all, the shows shared the characters Launchpad and Gizmoduck, so why wouldn't they exist in the same universe? We'll let Stones explain:

"Because Launchpad appeared in DuckTales and we used Roboduck as the Superman character, the hero who gets all the glory as opposed to Darkwing, fans try to connect the two realities. They are two different universes in my book. We work in the alternate Duckiverse."

Stones points out that's why Launchpad was a rather inept pilot in DuckTales, but was much better at flying in Darkwing Duck. While the character could've easily had some training between the two animated series, that's a pretty clear difference between the two versions of the characters. The reason Stones had Darkwing Duck exist in a separate universe appears to be tied to his affinity for Silver Age comics that didn't have much continuity between issues. He explains:

"It drives fans crazy, but I was not a huge fan of continuity. I grew up with Silver Age continuity with the comics. Yeah, I know Lois Lane doesn't know Clark Kent is Superman. She suspects something. Jimmy Olsen's his pal. He went to high school with Lana Lang. The basics everybody knew. But there was really no arc or change. Every time you picked up a comic, you knew where you were starting."

So there you have it. While we all assumed that Darkwing Duck and DuckTales co-existed in the same world, it turns out they're in completely different universes. Perhaps with this anniversary rolling around an animated crossover might finally let the two different universes meet. But we won't hold our breath.