‘Mighty Ducks’ Renewed for Season 2 at Disney+

Disney+ will quack again.

The streamer has handed out a second-season renewal for its revival of The Mighty Ducks. Production on Game Changers will begin in early 2022. A return date has not yet been determined.

The brainchild of original trilogy screenwriter Steven Brill, who pitched the revival to Disney execs back before Disney+ even had a name, the series revolves around a new Mighty Ducks powerhouse team. After a 12-year-old (Brady Noon, Good Boys) is cut from the Ducks, he and his mom (Gilmore Girls favorite Lauren Graham) build their own team of misfits to challenge the win-at-all-costs culture of youth sports. Emilio Estevez reprises his role as former Ducks coach Gordon Bombay.

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The 10-episode series is produced in-house at Disney’s ABC Signature Studios. The Mighty Ducks creator Brill serves as co-creator and executive producer of the new series. Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa (13 Going on 30, The King of Queens) are credited as co-creators and will return as showrunners. James Griffiths and Michael Spiller exec produce, with the former having directed multiple episodes. Graham, who currently stars on NBC’s critical darling Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, will be credited as a co-exec producer. George Heller and Brad Petrigala of Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Jordan Kerner will also exec produce. Spiller and Griffiths will not return for season two.

Disney+, like other streamers, does not release traditional viewership data. The Mighty Ducks: Game C hangers is currently certified fresh on RottenTomatoes.com with an 89 percent rating among critics and less-enthusiastic 76 percent among viewers. THR‘s chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg said in his March review that the series had “[s]ome familiar Ducks appeal, but without the movies’ efficiency.”

The Mighty Ducks was released in 1992 by Walt Disney Pictures. Produced on a budget of $10 million, the Stephen Herek-directed movie starred Estevez as Gordon Bombay, a Minneapolis attorney who winds up coaching a pee-wee hockey team as community service after a drunk-driving arrest. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film went on to become a box-office hit, grossing $50.7 million domestically. That led to two sequels — 1994’s D2: The Mighty Ducks (with Estevez) and 1996’s D3: The Mighty Ducks, which was built around original film star Josh Jackson’s Charlie Conway. They grossed $45.6 million and $22.9 million, respectively, with the success of the first feature inspiring producers Disney to name Anaheim’s 1993 NHL expansion team after the franchise.

The Mighty Ducks is one of many reboots and revivals in the works at Disney+ as the streamer leans into its parent company’s deep roster of IP. Other familiar titles at the year-old streamer include series based on Turner & Hooch, Doogie Howser, High School Musical, Monsters, Inc., Swiss Family Robinson, Willow, Percy Jackson, National Treasure, The Muppets and Beauty and the Beast. Those join a dozen series and counting from both the Star Wars and Marvel universes.