Trivia / The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Kiefer O'Reilly is also Canadian, like his character Logan, although he is from Vancouver and most likely a bigger fan of the Canucks than the Maple Leafs.
    • Inverted in that O'Reilly was one of the most experienced hockey players of the cast, but is playing one of the worst on the team.
  • Luke Islam (Koob) is also a singer and lover of showtunes, much like Koob who reveals his Hidden Depths in Episode 4.
  • Dylan Playfair (Coach T) grew up playing junior hockey with his brothers. Additionally his uncle Jim played in the NHL for 12 years, and his dad Jim played professionally for nine years (though only a handful of games in the NHL). Jim Playfair has also been involved in coaching at the minor, and NHL levels since the mid-'90s.
• California Doubling: Unlike the film trilogy, which was shot on location in the Twin Cities, the series was filmed in Vancouver, Canada.
• Casting Gag: Dylan Playfair, son of former NHL coach Jim Playfair, plays the no nonsense Ducks coach. He previously played hockey player turned coach Reilly on Letterkenny, though there he was much more easy going. (And a guy named "Playfair" plays a Jerkass win-at-all-costs coach in the same vein as Jack Reilly).
• The Character Died with Him: Jan has passed away like his brother, after Jan Rubes' death in 2009.
• Follow the Leader: The series is clearly Disney+'s answer to Cobra Kai, being a Distant Sequel Series to a decades old family sports movie franchise. The difference is Cobra Kai depicts the original antagonist as the protagonist and employs a Darker and Edgier approach to its series while focusing on the original characters, while Mighty Ducks: Game Changers depicts the Ducks as the antagonists, keeps its original family friendly tone, and puts the new characters at the forefront with Gordon Bombay playing a supporting role. Steven Brill has said he actually had the general idea for the show several years earlier, but was very uneasy about the fans accepting the Perspective Flip until Cobra Kai was so successful.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Kiefer O'Reilly grew up playing ice hockey and knows how to ice skate. He plays Logan, who is a terrible player and gets nicknamed "Tripod" because he needs to use his stick to be able to stand up while on skates. While the rest of the cast were in ice hockey bootcamp to learn how to play properly, he was given lessons on how to skate and play badly. It's subverted later on in the first season when Gordon's coaching helps Logan improve and O'Reilly gets to show off his genuine hockey skills.
• Promoted Fanboy: Dylan Playfair was a big fan of the film trilogy growing up and called getting to act alongside Emilio Estevez in the series "a dream come true".
• Real-Life Relative: Original Ducks Fulton Reed and Guy Germaine are once again played by brothers Elden and Garrette Henson.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Emilio Estevez's character will be written out of the show's second season, which was initially due to the actor's disagreement with the studio's COVID-19 vaccination requirement. Estevez has denied the report and stated that his quitting was due to a contract dispute and creative differences, adding that he shot the first season while suffering from long-haul COVID symptoms.
• Role Reprise:
  • Emilio Estevez returns as Gordon Bombay as part of the main cast. He'd actually retired from acting to focus on producing and directing, but was so impressed by the scripts that he agreed to come back.
  • Elden Henson, Matt Doherty, Vincent LaRusso, Marguerite Moreau, Garrette Henson, and Justin Wong reprise their roles of Fulton Reed, Les Averman, Adam Banks, Connie Moreau, Guy Germaine, and Ken Wu in the sixth episode.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Joshua Jackson was asked to reprise his role as Charlie Conway at some point in the first season and Jackson agreed to it, but COVID-19 protocols and other scheduling conflicts made him unavailable. Some other actors like Aaron Lohr (Dean Portman), Kenan Thompson (Russ Tyler) and Mike Vitar (Luis Mendoza) have jobs that prevented them taking enough time off, while Shaun Weiss (Greg Goldberg) had just recently started to recover from a serious drug addiction and wasn't nearly in good enough shape to come in (though the producers have said they'd love to have him back once he's ready).
  • Several NHL players who are fans of the original trilogy, including Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara, contacted the creators in hopes of making cameos in the series. Unfortunately, Canada's COVID-19 protocols made it impossible.
  • Estevez tried to convince the creators to incorporate themes relating to the then recent murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and its effects on the Black Lives Matter movement in the series. The creators pushed back because they felt the show wasn't the appropriate platform to tackle the issues relating to the event.

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