Emilio Estevez's The Mighty Ducks 4 Idea Will Probably Never Happen But It Sounds Pretty Great

When last we saw Emilio Estevez, he was serving a hilariously tiny, get-the-f***-out-of-my-house bottle of water to his "St. Elmo's Fire" co-star Andrew McCarthy in the latter's cringy-fascinating documentary "Brats." Estevez can be a refreshingly candid interview subject, but judging from the tensed shoulders and the unblinking death stare he had fixed on McCarthy, he did not appear to be in the mood to take a stroll down Brat Pack memory road that day.

Why was Estevez so on edge? McCarthy's antsy demeanor and scattered line of questioning made it fairly plain this project should've never made it outside of his therapist's office. I would've given him the short water treatment, too. But perhaps something else was eating at Estevez.

Looking back at Estevez's 52-year acting career (stretching all the way back to his uncredited debut in Terrence Malick's 1973 masterpiece "Badlands"), he's been a pivotal part of some pop cultural touchstones. He was the wiseass lead in Alex Cox's cult classic "Repo Man" and the tightly wound high school jock in John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club." Estevez was also Billy the Kid in the Gen-X-catering "Young Guns" Westerns (which might be getting a third installment at some point in the near future).

For Millennials, however, Estevez will forever be Coach Gordon Bombay, the wayward ex-hockey player who found redemption by leading a scrappy group of underdogs to ice-rink glory in "The Mighty Ducks," "D2: The Mighty Ducks," and "D3: The Mighty Ducks." Loads of 1990s kids inhaled and can quote these movies chapter and verse, so it's hardly surprising that Disney exploited their nostalgia appeal several decades later with the streaming series "The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers." 

The first season of the Disney+ show hit the throwback sweet spot, especially with many now-grown "Mighty Ducks" cast members returning. However, when Estevez departed the series prior to its second season over his alleged unwillingness to comply with the company's Covid-19 vaccine policy (though Estevez later claimed he is "not anti-vaxx" and that he was pressured into returning for season 1 after developing long Covid), enthusiasm for "Game Changers" waned, despite exciting plans for the future, and the show was canceled.

The future of the "Mighty Ducks" franchise is currently hazy, but one thing we do know is that Disney wants nothing to do with Estevez's pitch for "The Mighty Ducks 4." And this is a shame, because it's a pretty good idea!

Estevez recently dropped by Josh Horowitz's "Happy Sad Confused" podcast and revealed that he pitched Disney on a fourth "The Mighty Ducks" movie. It would've brought back two of the biggest stars to come out of the franchise, but the studio wasn't hot on the idea. Here's how Estevez explained the project to Horowitz:

"[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 and to coach a new team, an expansion team, for the professional women's hockey league. So, it would be an all-girl team. Now, when we discover Bombay, he's coaching roller derby and so he says, 'My girls are going with me. They have to have a shot.' It was charming and contemporary and cool and organically of the moment. It's where we're at. [...] Disney was like, 'We don't want to pursue that.'"

Perhaps Disney was spooked by the anemic box office performance of Drew Barrymore's underrated 2009 roller derby film "Whip It," or maybe the studio is still upset with Estevez over what went down on the "Game Changers" series. All I know is that I dig his pitch and would pay to see that movie if it turned up at my local multiplex. It doesn't make sense to mothball a beloved franchise like "The Mighty Ducks" — though, as season 2 of "Game Changers" showed us, nostalgia alone can't sustain this brand.