Game on: “The Mighty Ducks” reboot at Disney+ is a go, with Lauren Graham set to star as the new coach of the youth hockey team.
The series is set in present-day Minnesota, where the Mighty Ducks have evolved from scrappy underdogs to an ultra-competitive, powerhouse youth hockey team. After 12-year-old Evan (Brady Noon) is unceremoniously cut from the Ducks, he and his mom Alex (Graham) set out to build their own ragtag team of misfits to challenge the cutthroat, win-at-all-costs culture of competitive youth sports.
The 10-episode series will begin production this month and debut later this year on the streaming service.
Steve Brill, who wrote all three of the original “Mighty Ducks” films in the 1990s, will return as co-creator and executive producer, with Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa serving as showrunners. James Griffiths and Michael Spiller will serve as executive producers, with Griffiths directing. George Heller and Brad Petrigala of Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Jordan Kerner also serve as non-writing executive producers. Graham is also a co-executive producer.
Graham is best known for her roles on “Parenthood” and “Gilmore Girls” and currently stars in “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” on NBC. Noon is coming off his starring role in last summer’s surprise comedy “Good Boys” and can next be seen in “Marry Me” alongside Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson.
The first “Mighty Ducks” film was released in 1992 and starred Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay, a lawyer-turned-youth hockey coach. The film also starred Joshua Jackson, Lane Smith and Elden Henson. The second film, “D2: The Mighty Ducks,” was released in 1994 and saw the now-successful Ducks hockey team compete in the Junior Goodwill Games; Kenan Thompson was added to the cast. The third and final film in the franchise, “D3: The Mighty Ducks,” was released in 1996. That film saw the group move up to high school to play for the junior varsity team at Eden Hall Academy, and swapped out Estevez’s Bombay as coach in favor of Ted Orion (Jeffrey Nordling).
In 1993, Disney founded an expansion NHL team in Anaheim named after the Mighty Ducks, though the franchise was rebranded to just the “Anaheim Ducks” in 2006 after Disney sold the team.
“Mighty Ducks” represent the latest title that Disney is mining from its vast library of IP for the nascent streaming service. Earlier this week, Disney+ ordered a new “Turner & Hooch” with Josh Peck to star, and is developing new versions of “Lizzie McGuire,” “The Sandlot,” and “Love, Simon” to go along with series from “Star Wars” and Marvel Studios.