This is pretty pucking cool: Gilmore Girls MVP Lauren Graham is set to star as the coach of a ragtag hockey team in Disney+’s series reboot of TheMighty Ducks, which has snagged a 10-episode straight-to-series order. Additionally, Brady Noon (Boardwalk Empire) will co-star as Graham’s TV son.
The series is, of course, based on the ’90s Mighty Ducks film trilogy, which began with 1992’s The Mighty Ducks and concluded with 1996’s D3: The Mighty Ducks. It starred Emilio Estevez as Gordon Bombay, a down-on-his-luck attorney who became the coach of a Minnesota-based youth hockey team.
In the reboot, which is 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 (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.
Steve Brill, the creator, writer and executive producer of all three films, is back as co-creator and executive producer of the new series. Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa (The King of Queens) are co-creators and will serve as showrunners and EPs. James Griffiths and Michael Spiller will serve as executive producers with Griffiths directing. Graham is co-executive producer.
Graham is currently starring in NBC’s midseason musical comedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.
This isn’t the first time the Ducks have appeared the small screen. Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series — which had no connection to the movies, save for its name — ran from 1996 to 1997 as part of ABC’s “Disney Afternoon” block of programming.
Production on the live-action Mighty Ducks series is set to begin this month in Vancouver ahead of a late 2020 bow on Disney+.
