For years now, Kenan Thompson has held the crown as the longest-running Saturday Night Live cast member in the sketch show’s history. So it’s only logical that his very first acting gig happened long before he landed that prestige job, but it still hurts part of my brain to see Thompson’s post for his Hollywood debut in the classic ‘90s kids sports movie D2: The Mighty Ducks. Because knuckle-puck my life, the sequel recently hit its 30th anniversary.
Where has the time gone, people? D2: The Mighty Ducks hit theaters on March 25, 1994, bringing back a lot of the original Mighty Ducks cast such as Coach Gordon Bombay himself, Emilio Estevez. Not everyone returned, though, allowing room for some new additions like Kenan Thompson’s smack-talking Russ Tyler, who joined the squad as #56 thanks to his secret weapon, the knuckle puck. And his mouth, obviously.
Check out the actor’s Instagram post below, which also offers up the detail that he wasn’t exactly a skilled ice skater prior to landing the role.
Like, just knowing that D2: The Mighty Ducks is 30 years old now is haunting enough, but it's even weirder to think about how the movie's age compares to other entertainment notables. I'm pretty sure the movie was already out on VHS with D3 either filming or already out before current A-listers such as Sydney Sweeney and Timothée Chalamet were born. The Simpsons and Taylor Swift were less than five years in. We were introduced to Russ Tyler the same year Ace of Base's "The Sign" held the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100. Wild times.
Anyway, back to celebrating! Understandably, Thompson's anniversary post got attention from plenty of other famous faces, such as one of his D2 co-stars, as well as his longtime co-star in projects outside the Ducks-verse, Kel Mitchell.
- 👏👏👏❤ Yer a legend… we all knew it back when! Love you dude! - D2: The Mighty Ducks co-star Scott Whyte
- Happy Anniversary bro!! D2 is legendary - Kel Mitchell
- 👏👏👏 - Michael Cudlitz
- So cute!! - Holly Robinson Peete
- Aaahhhh!!! Soooo good!!!! - Cecily Strong
- OMG! Look at baby you!!!❤ - Yvette Nicole Brown
- 🐐 Movie - JJ Watt
- My first movie I saw on my own - Ron Funches
So many knuckle puck references in those comments, too. Clearly, this is a movie that has aged as well as can be, and seems to bring about nothing but joyous feelings among fans. Nobody ever has a bad thing to say about it, except for maybe Team Iceland's coach, "The Dentist."
The Ducks franchise obviously hasn't stopped being important either to audiences or its veteran cast. Quite a few former co-stars reunited for The MIghty Ducks: Game Changers in 2021, though Kenan Thompson wasn't available to join in. There's always the future, though. And with Thompson playing a coach on SNL in the image above, maybe Russ could one day be inspired enough to take over his own team of runts.
All the Mighty Ducks movies and the Saturday morning cartoon series are available to stream with a Disney+ subscription. And check out the upcoming Saturday Night Live hosts who'll be sharing the screen with Kenan Thompson soon.
