April 19, 2025: Actor and filmmaker Emilio Estevez has revealed that he wrote a script for a fourth installment of The Mighty Ducks franchise — one that would have introduced an all-girl hockey team — but Disney chose not to move forward with the project, as reported by Variety.
Estevez, who famously portrayed Coach Gordon Bombay in The Mighty Ducks trilogy and reprised the role in Season 1 of the Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, discussed the shelved project on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. The actor explained that the script was intended to “make up for all of the disasters that happened on the Game Changers series.”
“[It’s] a feature script that had Coach Bombay coming back, being pulled back in by Joshua Jackson’s character and Kenan Thompson’s character, to coach a new team — an expansion team — for the professional women’s hockey league,” Estevez said. “So, it would be an all-girl team.”
He went on to describe the film’s premise: Bombay, now coaching roller derby, agrees to return under the condition that his roller derby girls are given a shot. “It was charming, contemporary, cool, and organically of the moment. It’s where we’re at. Disney was like, ‘We don’t want to pursue that,’” he added.
Game Changers aired for two seasons on Disney+, with Estevez playing a supporting role in the first. However, he exited the series before Season 2, which ultimately became its last. According to Variety, the split occurred due to Estevez’s refusal to confirm compliance with ABC Signature’s COVID-19 vaccination policy — leading the studio to not renew his contract.
Despite the fallout, Estevez remains attached to the franchise and had hoped to revitalize it with a fresh and timely angle — one that sadly won’t see the light of day for now.