Josh Duhamel (left) and Emilio Estevez.Photo: Mike Marsland/WireImage; ABC/Liane Hentscher
There’s a new head coach headed to theMighty Ducksuniverse!
Josh Duhamelhas joined the cast ofThe Mighty Ducks: Game Changersand will be replacingEmilio Estevez’s character ofCoach Gordon Bombayon the Disney+ series, PEOPLE confirms.
Duhamel, 49, will take on the role of Gavin Cole, a former NHL player-turned-coach who runs the intense summer hockey institute where The Mighty Ducks will play in season 2.
Duhamel’s character — who is described as “inspirational, charming, hardcore [and] big on the hockey metaphor that applies to life” — will star alongsideLauren Graham, who portrays Alex Morrow.
News of Duhamel’s casting comes two months afterDeadlineandVarietyreported that Estevez, 59, would not be returning to the show for season 2 due to a disagreement about ABC Signature’sCOVID-19vaccination requirement.
Estevez later spoke outabout the reports, tellingDeadlinelast November that his departure was due to “nothing more than a good old-fashioned contract dispute.”
Emilio Estevez (center) on the set of The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.Disney +
“I am not anti-vaxx. Full stop. I take this pandemic very seriously, and I am often teased about my continued following of the safety protocols and my abundance of caution,” Estevez said in a statement to Deadline, stopping short of directly saying whether he was or was not vaccinated.
Estevez maintained that he had not left the show because of “an anti-vaccine position,” and revealed that he contracted COVID in March 2020 and spent much of the year battling prolonged symptoms.
The actor explained that he had concerns about his safety when he returned to set in August 2020 but that the producers assured him he would be safe. He also claimed his former reps warned him “about possible consequences and legal jeopardy” of not returning to work so he went back to set “while still suffering from Long Haul Syndrome.”
“The legacy of the franchise was more important to me than my own health. In retrospect, I wrongly chose to protect the show over being transparent about having contracted Covid-19,” he wrote, in part. “Simply put, I am anti-bully. My exit from the show was due to a myriad of creative differences – any other narrative is false.”
Emilio Estevez.Disney +
Centered around a ragtag hockey team, the firstThe Mighty Ducksmovie was released in 1992 and starred Estevez as Coach Gordon Bombay, along with Joss Ackland, Lane Smith, Josef Sommer,Joshua Jacksonand Elden Henson.
The hockey flick spawned two sequels —D2: The Mighty Ducks(1994) andD3: The Mighty Ducks(1996) — and an animated series.
In March 2021, the first season ofThe Mighty Ducks: Game Changerspremiered on Disney+, nearly 30 years after the original film franchise. Estevez reprised his role as Gordon Bombay for the 10-episode series alongside Graham, Brady Noon, Swayam Bhatia, Taegen Burns, Julee Cerda, Bella Higginbotham, Luke Islam, Kiefer O’Reilly, Maxwell Simkins and De’Jon Watts.
No premiere date has been set yet for season 2.
source: people.com
