The Mighty Ducks movies are some of the most beloved films for children and teens of the mid-90s. They created a new love for hockey and helped start the careers of Joshua Jackson, Elden Henson, Kenan Thompson, Jussie Smollett, and many others. The Mighty Ducks: Games Changers is bound to give an acting career boost to the new actors taking over the Ducks’ legacy in the new Disney+ original series.
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers premieres soon, and it’s bound to bring a nostalgic overload of joy to fans of The Mighty Ducks movies. Fans of the original Ducks are super excited, because Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez) will be returning exclusively to Disney+. If you’re a huge fan of The Mighty Ducks movies, then you’ve likely been quacking since the Game Changers news was announced. However, for everyone else, you may have forgotten a few things about the film series. Let’s do a quick refresher on the important things to remember about The Mighty Ducks movies before The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers premiere.
Gordon Bombay Was Originally A Lawyer Who Coached The Ducks As Community Service For A DUI
Bombay starts the Mighty Ducks franchise as a hotshot lawyer who spends most of his days working. He develops a drinking problem, and one night drives while completely plastered. He's pulled over by the police, and then gets ordered by the court to do 500 hours of community service. His boss, Mr. Ducksworth (Josef Sommer) also orders him to take a leave of absence from work. His community service involves coaching a pee-wee hockey team in District 5 of Minneapolis.
Gordon hates children, so this is his own personal nightmare. Gordon and the children immediately clash.
The Ducks Were Originally The Underdogs
The Ducks, originally known as the District 5 team, were a mess. None of them really knew how to play hockey and were more interested in having fun than really learning the sport. Bombay was fine with this at first, he even tried to coach them into cheating. The Mighty Ducks had lost so many games that no one took them seriously.
Eventually, the drive to win and affection for the children kicks in and Bombay coaches them into winning the championship. By the time D3: The Mighty Ducks premieres, the Ducks are a well-known and highly sought-after team. However, they still have an underdog spirit and that makes them likable even when they become world champions.
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers trailer seems to hint towards a much different Ducks than we have come to know and love. They're no longer the underdogs and more like some of the teams they faced off against. They're all about winning.
Gordon Bombay's Hockey Background
The reason Gordon is so good at coaching hockey is that he used to be a pee-wee hockey star for the Hawks. He quit the team after he lost a championship game by not scoring in the final round. This fact still haunts him, and he’s further taunted by it when Hawks coach, Reilly (Lane Smith), brings up him never pursuing his hockey dreams.
At the end of The Mighty Ducks, Gordon gets a second chance at that goal. He leaves for an audition for the minor leagues, and in D2: The Mighty Ducks,we see Gordon in the minors, one big win away from joining the major leagues. However, he gets a knee injury that sends him right back to the full-time coach life.
Gordon Bombay And The Mighty Ducks Competed As Team USA
The second Mighty Ducks movie has the team competing in an Olympics-style competition called The Junior Goodwill Games. The Ducks face off against various global teams, with the Icelandic team being their main enemy and biggest competition. This win helps establish the Ducks (rebranded for the competition as Team USA) as one of the best junior teams in the nation.
It also helps increase Bombay’s credit as a coach and mentor. This glory will be important for D3: The Mighty Ducks as it directly ties into the changes that occur in this film, especially for Bombay and star pupil Charlie Conway (Joshua Jackson).
The Mighty Ducks Attended Eden Hall Academy
Because of their performance at the Junior Goodwill Games and Bombay’s influence, the entire Team USA Ducks get full athletic scholarships to a prestigious prep school called Eden Hall Academy. They’re the junior varsity team, and their biggest enemy in this movie is the varsity team. This film also introduces the Ducks to a new coach, Coach Orion (Jeffrey Nordling). This detail may be important to note because it might be why the once cool and calm Ducks have now become winning obsessed.
The team may now be tied to Eden Hall Academy, so it would make sense for them to only want the best players on their team. They could also now be linked with the possibility of getting a scholarship to the school if you’re a good enough player. A full scholarship to a prestigious prep school has to be very tempting for many students, and may explain the new serious attitude of the Ducks.
The Ducks Are A Diverse Group Of Children
Over the course of the three Mighty Ducks movies, the Ducks gain and lose players. However, most of the players from D2: The Mighty Ducks appear in the final film. The Team USA Ducks seem to be the team that many associates with the Mighty Ducks. They come from many different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds, and some are not even from the same state.
These are a very diverse group of children, and luckily for fans, some of them will be returning for Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. Specifically, six players, five of whom appeared in all three Mighty Ducks movies, will appear in at least one episode of the new Disney+ revival.
One-half of the Bash Brothers, Fulton (Elden Henson), couple Guy (Garette Ratliff Henson) and Connie (Marguerite Moreau), team USA member Kenny (Justin Wong), all-star and former Hawks player Banks (Vincent LaRusso), and commentary smart-mouth Averman (Matt Doherty) will all appear. Currently, we don’t know for sure if other Mighty Ducks movies’ characters will return as well, but we can hope.
Gordon Bombay Got A Job Promotion in D3
The final Mighty Ducks movie had way less Bombay than the first two films, and that’s largely because they had new coach Orion. Also, at the very beginning of D3: The Mighty Ducks, Bombay tells Charlie that he was hired by the Junior Goodwill Games committee to be the Director of Player Personnel for junior hockey programs worldwide. This big promotion took him away from the Ducks, but he showed up at their final game to support them.
We know that Bombay is back for The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, so it’ll be interesting to see if he still has that title or if his career has evolved or regressed. The final film also had Bombay use some of his lawyer skills, so he could have returned to being a lawyer, and that’s where we may see Gordon’s career start in the new series.
Wherever we see Gordon Bombay at in his life in The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, we know the love of the Ducks will pull him back into coaching.
The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers premieres on March 26, 2021. Be sure to keep up with this premiere and all the winter and spring 2021 TV premiere dates!
