'The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers' Reveals The Return Of Some Original Franchise Ducks

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers is coming to Disney+ next week, essentially giving the beloved Disney sports franchise the Cobra Kai treatment. A scrappy new team of players is put together when the modern, ultra-competitive youth hockey powerhouse known as The Mighty Ducks seems to have become too big for its britches, and the only man who can teach them to fly like the old Ducks is Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez). And when Coach Bombay returns (presumably reluctantly), it looks like he'll be getting help from some familiar franchise faces in the form of some veteran Ducks.

Disney+ announced the return of some of the original Mighty Ducks from the three-film franchise that kids fell in love with in the 1990s. Along with Emilio Estevez in the middle as Gordon Bombay, we have (from left to right) Marguerite Moreau as Connie Moreau, Garette Ratliff Henson as Guy Germaine, Elden Henson as Fulton Reed, Vincent Larusso as Adam Banks, Justin Wong as Kenny Wu, and Matt Doherty as Lester Averman. They somehow all look like they've aged considerably while also still looking the same as they did as kids.

Liane Hentscher/Disney

Liane Hentscher/Disney

A couple more images show the returning Mighty Ducks in scenes from an episode entitled "Spirit of the Ducks." We're not sure exactly where in the season the episode will land, but I can tell you that it's not one of the first three episodes that's being made available for press in advance of the show's premiere (we'll have a review coming next week).

In one image, the players have arrived in the ice rink in a limousine. It's a fun callback to how Gordon Bombay first met the District 5 team in the original Mighty Ducks. But why are they arriving in al limousine beyond that reason? Could they all be famous Olympian hockey players now? They certainly look like they're dressed rather stylishly too.

The other image has the Ducks back on the ice, presumably teaching the plucky new team on how to play like the old Ducks. What kind of trick plays and training does Bombay have up his sleeve this time?

With these cast members coming back, this feels like a potential lead-up to the return of Joshua Jackson as Charlie Conway at some point. The question is whether he will be an ally or an enemy. As we've seen in Cobra Kai, it's been interesting to change up the character dynamic of legacy characters from The Karate Kid movies, so maybe Charlie has become a prick in his older years. He always had a bit of an attitude as a teen, even though he ended up learning valuable lessons throughout the trilogy. Maybe all the fame got to him and he's the pompous owner of the modern Mighty Ducks, potentially creating a rift between Charlie and Bombay. That's just speculation on our part, but it would be an intriguing twist.

Brady Noon, Maxwell Simkins, Swayam Bhatia, Luke Islam, Kiefer O'Reilly, Taegen Burns, Bella Higginbotham, and DJ Watts play the new batch of hockey players in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, with Lauren Graham co-starring as one of the players' mother. Steve Brill, the original creator of The Mighty Ducks, is back as the executive producer and creator of this series. Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa (The King of Queens) co-created the show and will serve as the showrunners.

Below is the official synopsis for The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, and you can watch the trailer here.

In the 10-episode season set in present day Minnesota, the Mighty Ducks have evolved from scrappy underdogs to an ultra-competitive, powerhouse youth hockey team. After 12-year-old Evan Morrow (Brady Noon) is unceremoniously cut from the Ducks, he and his mom, Alex (Lauren Graham), set out to build their own team of misfits to challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of youth sports today. With the help of Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez), they rediscover the joys of playing just for love of the game.

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers arrives on Disney+ starting on March 26, 2021.