What I’m about to tell you will make some readers (myself included) feel very old. It has been twenty years since Disney’s THE MIGHTY DUCKS was released. Twenty years! Many of you out there will have grown up with the Ducks and so the news that a new chapter could be on the cards might please the nostalgic out there.
Whilst reminiscing about the three films that followed an underdog ice-hockey team, producer Jordan Kerner revealed that a fourth film could potentially happen. The producer revealed that Disney is open to a new version should the right story materialise, something that Kerner admitted that there have been talks about:
“There have been a number of times that we have discussed with the studio the idea of either bringing it back and bringing it back possibly with one or two of the guys who are now in their thirties as the coaches, and having a few more of them be their friends in their lives and having the kids come back. And I’ve been pitched a story two or three times. It hasn’t been the right story yet, but the idea of doing that is something Steve and I have talked about and actually Disney and I have talked about. So I’m not going to fuel the rumor mill that it’s going to happen, but I’m saying to you that the studio said to us, “We’d be interested if you come to us with the right story.” And that’s something that we’ve been all thinking about independently and I think that we may be coming closer to having the right idea for that”.
The films starred Emilio Estevez as a one-time pee-wee ice hockey legend who missed a key goal in a championship game. After believing that his sporting career was over Estevez’s Gordon Bombay had become a down-trodden lawyer who is tasked with coaching his old pee-wee hockey team. Being a Disney film Bombay was positively influenced by his young teammates with him becoming a surrogate father to the children.
Should a fourth film go ahead the decision about whether any of the original cast should return is at the fore-front of Kerner’s mind. The simplest way to generate a story would be to have one of the original kids now play coach to a new generation and who would be better than the heart of the Ducks Charlie Conway? Conway, believe it or not, was played by Dawson’s Creek and Fringe actor Joshua Jackson, who still plays local league ice-hockey and is more than up for a return:
“I feel like a fourth film should happen, and if there was space for any of the original kids that come back and have a role, I would be surprised that anybody didn’t want to do it. The next generation should have its own version. Not that we need to come back as adults, but I hope my kids grow up and play pickup hockey and I hope that they have their own movies like my generation had those movies. In that way, yeah, of course, I’d be a part of something like that”.
THE MIGHT DUCKS taught a generation of children about the imortance of team-work, to never give up, and that anything is possible. It’s been a while since we’ve had a really great feel-good sports movie and whilst it’s cool that kids today are growing up seeing their favourite superheroes on screen, it might be nice if they could see something a little more grounded in reality. Needless to say that should a new film get commissioned we at THN will be at the front of the ticket queue quacking our inner-child’s hearts out.
Source: Time
