Mighty Ducks Sequel Show Finds Gordon Bombay In A Dark Place

Disney+’s upcoming TV series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers will find coach Gordon Bombay in a dark place. The fictional high profile lawyer turned children’s hockey coach remains one of, if not the most recognizable roles that Emilio Estevez has played in his lengthy acting career.

Beginning in 1992, Disney delivered the first Mighty Ducks film. The story follows Bombay, who is found guilty of drunk driving and sentenced to 500 hours of community service as head coach of a local Pee Wee hockey team. Bombay, who has a somewhat painful childhood memory of his own days as a hockey player, isn’t exactly overjoyed to find himself in such a situation. None the less, he takes on coaching duties, only to realize just how bad things are for the team. The Ducks lack the proper equipment and the players are surprisingly terrible. Through hard work, perseverance and some hustling on the part of Bombay, the team eventually turns their season into a championship one. The film found substantial success, leading to two sequels, as well as an animated series.

Now with the new Mighty Ducks series only a matter of days away from its debut on Disney+, fans are still discovering just where the series finds coach Bombay. During a recent interview with Estevez, TV Line learned that the coach Bombay that audiences are reunited with in Game Changers isn’t quite the victorious and confident one who appeared in three Mighty Ducks films. Instead, Estevez explained that this time around, Bombay is living a life that is a little on the dark side of things:

He’s a little broken. He’s a little beat up by life, and he’s kind of hiding out. He’s eating pizza and leftover birthday cake from kids’ birthday parties at the ice rink that he’s managing, and he’s not managing it very well. [He’s] not managed his life very well, and this opportunity comes through his door in the form of Lauren Graham[‘s character] saying, ‘I need a place where my new team can practice,’ and it breathes new life into him. It revitalizes his soul, which we have an opportunity to see over the course of the 10-episode series.

Bombay had plenty of reason to cheer in the three Mighty Ducks films, thanks to his role as coach. The position, which originally began as mere community service, took a genuine hold over Bombay and gave him a new sense of purpose in his life. This time around, it seems that his days of glory have long since faded, and Estevez also contends that he notices some parallels between his own career and that of the beloved character he plays. It’s been quite some time since Estevez had a hit on his hands, though Game Changers could be the breath of fresh air that some would argue his career is currently in need of.

At present, Estevez has admitted that a third entry in the Western saga, Young Guns, is currently in development, meaning a revitalization of the 58-year-old’s career could be a possibility. It’s hard to say how The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers will play out with new and established audiences, but one thing is for certain – coach Bombay is ready to take on the game he loves and Estevez is glad to be a part of that.

Source: TV Line

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Mike Jones
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Mike Jones is an author, screenwriter, world traveller and cinephile. His work has been featured in print and online in a variety of publications, and he’s also a Berlinale Talents alumnus. Cinema has always moved him in a big way and aside from having seen The Talented Mr Ripley more times than any other living person, he maintains a pretty darn healthy physical media collection. His favourite filmmakers include: Jordan Peele, David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, Mike Leigh, Steven Spielberg, the Dardenne Brothers, Noah Baumbach, Michael Haneke, Barry Jenkins and Andrea Arnold. Often jet-lagged, Mike once turned down a certain A-list celebrity’s offer to join them for a night of partying after a strange encounter in an airport.

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