Trivia / DuckTales (2017) S2E16 "The Duck Knight Returns!"

• Casting Gag: Boorswan, a British film director overseeing a Troubled Production of a superhero film, is voiced by Edgar Wright, who left the production of Ant-Man shortly before filming began due to creative differences.
• The Danza: Beside Jim Cummings as Jim Starling, there is also Tad the security guard, voiced by Darkwing Duck creator Tad Stones.
• God Never Said That: Months before the episode aired, Frank Angones was asked whether the in-universe Darkwing Duck show included Gosalyn, and replied "Darkwing without Gosalyn is not Darkwing". This was taken as a confirmation of Gosalyn's existence by Word of God, but based on the events of this episode, what he actually meant is Jim Starling had no Gosalyn, so he's not the real Darkwing - Drake Mallard is.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Alistair Boorswan is a mash-up of Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder, directors of Batman's most recent screen appearances. He is British like Nolan (and has the same hair style, blue eyes and scarf as him), while his overly verbose descriptions of the lines being blurred between good and evil fit Snyder's public profile. In either case, both directors are embodiments of the Grimdark aesthetic in blockbuster cinema. He is also voiced by Edgar Wright, who - whilst better known for his work in comedy - has had his own experiences of creative differences with studio executives as the director of a superhero movie.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Launchpad tells Drake to become a new Darkwing "for Jim." One wonders if they deliberately gave the original Darkwing actor the same first name as his own voice actor just for that line.
  • Domestic and animal abuse accusations by Jim Cumming's ex-wife against him surfaced shortly before the episode aired, which gives an unexpected perspective on Jim Starling's descent to madness and Launchpad's loss of respect for him, though the charges were soon dropped by the court.
  • The episode addresses all common issues regarding reboots, many of which are questions that have been asked regarding the DuckTales reboot from its creators.
  • Young Drake Mallard going to school wearing a Darkwing Duck costume is something show creator Frank Angones did in real life.
  • An absolutely unintentional one: two months before the episode aired, Zoltán Rajkai, the voice actor of Mickey Mouse in the Hungarian dubs, wrote an angry Facebook post about the studio making the dubs searching for a new voice actor for Mickey without contacting him first. This is pretty much what happens to Jim Starling in the episode (although, unlike Starling, Rajkai was doing Mickey dubs even in 2018). For bonus points, the replacement actor for Darkwing Duck is voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos, who currently voices Mickey Mouse in the Rudish shorts series.

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