The upcoming Darkwing Duck reboot will correlate to Ducktales' DW
Why are names like Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg assigned as executive producers on the reboot? It could be so the show isn't totally similar in tone to the DT reboot, maybe giving it a Darker and Edgier but still comedic flair. Some of the DT writers will later pitch in so that it doesn't lose too much footing and that the characters remain the same as when we last saw them, to help smoothen the transition for fans. For a show that's otherwise tying up its loose ends, the Darkwing material has a lot on the table that could be served in a reboot of its own. Should writers from the DT17 series be involved in a (the?) Darkwing Duck reboot, they may sprinkle in planned plots they were unable to get into DuckTales before it ended.
Given Saint Canard is only a bridge away from Duckburg, it'd be entirely possible for minor plot threads the crew deemed minor enough to not have to squeeze into the final episodes to get tied up in the spin-off/reboot. Honker Muddlefoot's introduction
In this iteration, Honker will be a Child Prodigy who never had the chance to make friends his age before meeting Gosalyn. Similar to his original counterpart, he is a shy kid who is ridiculed for his intelligence, this time around making him a Shadow Archetype for Mark Beaks, both being unappreciated brilliant young minds.Honker could be hired as a Waddle intern, an Unwitting Pawn to construct some sort of Weapon of Mass Destruction. When confronted by the heroes, Gosalyn's friendship is what ultimately brings him to the side of good. It is then revealed that Beaks is working for Taurus Bulba remotely with the latter in prison.
Honker could also encounter Team Darkwing and want to help. But due to his timid personality; they do not think he can handle being a hero only to save their butts when they're in danger. This would be an example of Underestimating Badassery.
Dr. Reginald Bushroot exists outside the Darkwing TV show.
He is real and will appear in a future episode. An attempt to rescue Dr. Waddlemeyer
will take the cast to the Negaverse.In "Let's Get Dangerous!", Dr. Waddlemeyer is subject to Uncertain Doom, as its said he was stranded in an alternate reality by Bulba and could not be brought back before the Ramrod needed to be destroyed. A potential future episode could see the cast using a different (presumably safer) form of traveling between universes and end up in a version of the Negaverse. Jim Starling will be redeemed. However, we'll still have Negaduck.
They had Jim be shown as hesitant, guilty, before he sees Launchpad's in danger and tries to rescue him. He's not irreedemable and future episodes will deal with trying to save him from himself.However at the same time, Negs is an iconic and beloved villain which the showrunners know. They will want to keep the door open for more stories with the character, or at least the concept of Darkwing having a "negative." In addition, they might want to allude to how OG Darkwing Duck had two versions of Negaduck (the first being an embodiment of Drake's negativity, the 2nd a denizen of the Negaverse). So here are two possible options:
- A. We get a rebooted version of the Negatron Negaduck's episode where Jim Starling's redeeming traits are split from the selfish, murderous, resentful side of his self. While Jim will be finally no longer Negaduck, his embodied darkness will manage to continue on so he can wreak further havoc.
- B. There's an episode or set of episodes introducing what's more or less the reboot's Negaverse. Here, we meet Drake's counterpart from this universe who's a young man who looked up to villains, crooks, and monsters. He might be the newest one to hold the title of Negaduck in his world.
In either case, the new Negaduck is the one DW and Co. deal with from then on.
Darkwing Duck will be the last one to figure out Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera is Gizmoduck
Despite the obvious clues, Darkwing won't notice Fenton and Gizmo are the same until everyone else has already figured it out.- "Let's Get Dangerous!" is making this look highly likely.
Negaduck will recruit the actors from the old Darkwing Duck show and form the Fearsome Five.
We know that the in-universe Darkwing Duck show featured Megavolt, Quackterjack, Liquidator and Bushroot as antagonists. The only one missing from the original Fearsome Five was Negaduck. Now that Jim Starling has become Negaduck, he will have no trouble finding the actors who played these characters, and will team up with them (or somehow manipulate them) to have revenge on Drake Mallard.- Jossed. The real versions get brought over from their native dimension, and they haven't joined Negaduck yet.
Negaduck will try to recruit his former co-stars only to find they've not fit for the roles
Negaduck will try to find the actors who play Megavolt, Quackerjack, Liquidator and Bushroot on his old show. But it turns out that many of them refused to work with him because they've either moved on from the role and are doing other work, retired from acting all together, passed away, don't want to commit actual crimes or just hated working with him back in the day due to his ego and rather not go through that again.We will meet Professor Waddlemeyer while he's alive.
And we'll get to know and like him for a little bit before the "accident" that kills him.- Seemingly supported by this post
in which Frank Angones seems to be implying Gosalyn won't be in an orphanage when we meet her. - Technically Jossed. We're introduced to him through flashback, which is more than the simple photograph shot we got of the original, but it's still after Bulba has already used the Ramrod to dispose of him.
Storkules will appear in the new Darkwing Duck.
Not only because he'd be an excellent member of the new Justice Ducks roster, but because having the same voice actor as the main protagonist would make things easier on the casting crew.Morgana's debut in the reboot series will have Honker utterly baffled.
Being science-minded as he is, Honker will insist there's got to be some sort of Clarke's Third Law angle to Morgana's magic. Depending on how the debut episode goes, Honker may or may not become Skeptic No Longer by the end. Gosalyn will wind up giving Negaduck his name.
While the two are interacting, Gosalyn will find that Starling is no Darkwing Duck but "some twisted, negative Darkwing Duck". Starling will run with that, shorting it to Negaduck before declaring, "I AM NEGADUCK!" with a maniacal laugh. Seeing this result, Gosalyn will just groan and mutter to herself, "Nice going, Gos, you just named the villain." Honker will act as a "tech guy" to Gosalyn.
After he winds up getting involved with his new best friend's crime fighting family, he'll help out in ways including—if not limited to—programming and building fancy trick arrows Gosalyn can use with her crossbow. Launchpad will call Honker "the Huey" of the Darkwing team when he joins.
Given he calls Gosalyn "the Dewey" of the group, he'd naturally follow that up with a comparison of both teams' Smart Guys.Tank Muddlefoot will undergo Character Development
In the original Darkwing Duck, Tank was a simple Big Brother Bully who would later be phased out of the show. If Tank is utilized in the reboot, he will be given more depth. It will be revealed that Tank is The Unfavorite of the Muddlefoot family, viewed as a "dumb slacker" compared to his more intelligent and hard-working brother, who receives the brunt of Tank's frustrations as a result. However, Tank will also be more likeable by defending Honker from other bullies. Ultimately a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, he could sometimes assist the heroes and maybe even be "The Louie" of the team. Honker of the new continuity is a Junior Woodchuck.
However, like Violet, he doesn't attend their group gettogethers.Professor Waddlemeyer will be saved and become Darkwing's tech guy
Drake and him will decide to work together to raise Gosalyn, with Waddlemeyer building tech for Darkwing like the Thunderquack. Professor Waddlemeyer will become a supervillain
He'll return from the alternate universe a changed duck, having become an evil dictator or overlord. Gosalyn will at first side with him only to choose to stay with Darkwing, cementing the theme that family is the one you choose. Dr. Waddlemeyer was the true founder of Waddle
It began as a humble startup tech company, which Mark Beaks then took over and turned into the corporate giant it is today. Evidence: 1) Waddle could be short for Waddlemeyer, and 2) Mark always seems to be stealing his ideas from elsewhere. Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch, but it's still possible. And this is Wild Mass Guessing.- Stretching this even further, Mark Beaks may have started off as an intern for Waddlemeyer around the time he and Bulba were working on the Ramrod. However, it was Bulba who rubbed off on Beaks the most - both are known for taking credit for other people's work and acting likeable and charming at first glance. Beaks may have even helped to dispose of Waddlemeyer and then hijacked the company to make a name for himself. The fact that Bulba's lab happens to have the Waddle sign on its roof adds some extra weight to this.
Honker will be shown to be more comfortable with himself around the Darkwing Crew.
Basically a quiet little Shrinking Violet in public and around others, but then he's more openly and eagerly geeky when he's mostly just with the main cast. Because he feels he can just be himself around his new friends and allies without being made fun of for it. The rest of Team Darkwing will borrow Darkwing's catchphrase more often in the reboot.
The others may be getting a bit more equal footing with the main hero himself and be written more as teammates than just the hero's sidekicks. And as such, that would mean the rest of the team will have their own moments more often from time to time, which would likely involve them needing to "get dangerous" as well. Launchpad's apparently still ongoing belief that he's a mole man in duck form will resurface when Professor Moliarty makes his Darkwing reboot debut.
Launchpad may try to appeal to the better nature of Moliarty and his minions by citing himself as an example of how mole people and surface dwellers can get along, much to the rest of Team Darkwing's confusion. Drake Mallard's childhood bully was none other than Herb Muddlefoot.
When they meet as adults, Herb will be shown to have mellowed out and gotten a lot friendlier. Though Herb will try to build a far more positive relationship with Drake, the latter's feelings towards the former will be tainted by their past.- Not helping matters is the fact that one of Herb's sons, Tank, is a bully. If it's anything like the original series, Herb will be completely oblivious to that.
The Negaverse.
At some point, Negaduck intervenes in plans to more safely recreate the Solego Circuit, and the resulting skirmish ultimately leads to him being scattered across the multiverse by the machine. His mind, however, is assimilated into his younger self right at the end of Darkwing Duck's production run, creating a divergent timeline and whole new reality. Armed with his knowledge of future events and gathered intel on enemies like the Duck family and Drake Mallard, and insane as ever, Starling quickly sets in motion a plan to fully take over.From an outside perspective, starring actor Jim Starling just went ballistic when his series was cancelled and went on a warpath, changing to a color-swapped version of his character costume and stealing all of his fully-functioning show props to mount a violent takeover. He also found his biggest fan, Launchpad McQuack, when he was still young and very impressionable, and became an Evil Mentor and a toxic influence to him. Herb and Binkie became underlings to him of their own accord, which he gladly accepted, and they eventually gave birth to Tank and Honker.
Tank struggled to live up to his parents and their overlord's expectations but felt inadequate in the face of his more successful brother, who was just as eager to please both, and found himself frightened by Honker's penchant for violence at such a young age. As such, he socially isolated himself and spent his free time burying himself in books and basically becoming the kind bookworm his brother would've become before the timeline split. He eventually ran away from home and ran into the resistance movement.
Drake Mallard, meanwhile, never got much of a film career going, as his first stunt double role ended in a tragic accident that was secretly orchestrated by Starling/Negaduck. Negaduck was also responsible for the demise of Scrooge McDuck when the wealthy adventurer attempted to intervene when he began to rise to power. Della and Donald disappeared from public view in the confusion and the former, as far as public records go, never had kids. However, the Duck triplets had, in fact, been born in hiding years after the Duck twins were taken in by the same resistance movement Tank would later run into. Four of the resistance's most prominent members would go on to become the face of the movement when they modeled themselves in appearance and abilities after the Darkwing Duck enemies The Fearsome Four, dubbing themselves The Friendly Four and dedicating themselves to ending Negaduck's reign of terror.
Meanwhile, Negaduck located and targeted Dr. Waddlemeyer just as he was starting to research the Solego Circuit and engineered and accident to kill him, both to nip the potential trouble of the Ramrod in this reality in the bud and to claim the little brat who was fighting alongside that hack actor in the main reality. Gosalyn resisted his influence at first, but Negaduck eventually managed to wear down her spirit. That is, until Team Darkwing in the main reality continued their attempts with the Solego Circuit and eventually discovered what would become known as "the Negaverse" for themselves...
Despite his scientifically-minded misgivings of it, Honker will prove to have a surprising knack for magic when he looks into it.
The original series has shown magic to be learned and performed based on complex mathematical skills, which could easily carry over to the reboot series. Also, the reboot DuckTales series has shown that The Power of Friendship can be used as an emotional fuel for magic. And with Honker's Friendless Background, he would likely put great emotional stock in the friendships he makes in Team Darkwing, and possibly the Duck family if he's met and befriended them as well by that point. Extra bonus points if the kids of the Duck family have given him and Gosalyn friendship bracelets by that point, which ends up working like a talisman for Honker when he later dabbles in magic. Envy/ego will be a recurring theme in the series
Darkwing Duck has always been a Glory Hound in spite of being otherwise heroic. Drake himself believes he is a better hero than Gizmoduck, who ended up (inadvertently) taking credit for saving the day at the end of "Let's Get Dangerous!". Then there's Jim/Negaduck's rivalry against Drake that stemmed from the former losing his famous TV role to the latter. Now looking into what's been discussed here, Honker and Tank could also be potential rivals, giving the latter more of a Freudian Excuse for his bullying than the original show did. Honker will imprint somewhat on Launchpad.
Their DWD91 counterparts already have a clear Intergenerational Friendship as it is. If Honker is fleshed out a bit more and shown more respect, both from the narrative and his teammates, in the new series, his fond attachment to his newfound friends may draw influence him into mimicking the kinds of traits he finds most admirable in the kindhearted pilot. Possibly leading to occasional scenes where the two are mirroring each other. It definitely helps that Launchpad is so great with kids.- As an expansion of this theory, Honker could very well be with Launchpad what Doofus Drake was in the '87 series. Plus intelligence, minus the fat jokes* , and probably a tad less of the Hero Worship.
The new Darkwing show will do a fair amount of Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
Since Darkwing Duck was a Show Within a Show in the new continuity whose protagonist's identity got taken up for real, there's will be the occasional references to elements and moments from "the old Darkwing show" in reference to the in-universe series, but they'd be written to also apply to the real-world 1991 series. Basically fun little nods from time to time for the classic fans watching the new show. Frank Angones will be part of the new show's production team.
When asked if he's moved onto his next project, Frank answered vaguely, "Working on a different show while developing some other stuff!" While the production team member of any media work need to be vague on the projects they're working on before they get publicly announced, it's entirely likely that he's been given a role on the new Darkwing Duck reboot to expand on the setting he laid the foundation for in the DuckTales reboot. They've already started work on the series, which is what Frank is vaguely talking about. It's also entirely likely that, if Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are producing it as has been claimed, they'll be fairly hands-off in the writing, with Frank being consulted on or even heading that department of production. If Seth Rogen's Darkwing is a completely different one from the Ducktales reboot version, they can still crossover via the multiverse
Webby's mom isn't the Bugmaster...but she will be.
"Let's Get Dangerous!" revealed through Gosalyn's disguise that the Bugmaster is a villain from the in-universe Darkwing Duck series, likely a one-off villain like in the real world version of the show. However, if two already existing theories for DuckTales turn out to be true - that Pepper the Egghead is Webby's mom and that she and Phantom Blot will leave F.O.W.L., it's entirely possible that Webby's mom could take on a suit and equipment inspired by the in-series villain and adopt her supervillain handle.- Jossed. Turns out Webby was a clone made from Scrooge's DNA, meaning Scrooge is her father and she has no mother. But that doesn't rule out the Bugmaster as a possible villain.
Honker will get a bona fide Character Arc.
Related to the guess higher up that Honker will be more comfortable with himself around Team Darkwing. A few isolated episodes of the original series feature Honker learning a Be Yourself aesop only to forget it by the next episode. The new series will take that concept and stretch it into a full-fledged character arc of Honker learning slowly overtime to like himself more for who he is, despite what bullies may say, and it'll stick. Helping matters is that in this day and age, it's easier to write cartoons with a heavier sense of continuity, though the original show's mess of an "episode order" certainly didn't help them there. The new Fearsome Four.
Theories for the people who become the Fearsome Four villains in "real life" here.- Megavolt:
- Elmo Sputterspark was a student at the same school as Drake Mallard who also watched the old Darkwing Duck show growing up. But instead of the hero, it was the villains he tended to like more, especially Megavolt. Fast forward to his young adult life, where he's a disgruntled employee for Waddle. And one workplace accident later, he suddenly has powers like his fictional idol. So seeing some dork running around the city dressed up as the Masked Mallard himself, Elmo decided to take on the mantle of his own role model.
- Liquidator:
- Bushroot:
- Dr. Reginald Bushroot is a lonely scientist who studied botany and a had strong love for nature but is very antisocial and distant to people(with a exception of Dr. Rhoda Dendron who happened to be his only friend) due to being bullied and tormented many times. But when his funding for his experiments was about to be cut. To prove his theories were correct, Bushroot performed an experiment on himself only to be permanently transformed into a half-duck half-plant creature due to a accident. This lead to him getting revenge on people for for the damage they had done to the world's flora and become an Eco-Terrorist.
- Quackerjack:
The new show will feature a mix of both classic and original villains.
The classic villains used in the show could either be new criminals inspired by the fictional characters in their gimmicks (like members of the Fearsome Four) or the occasional example of a villain from the real '91 series that didn't exist in the fictional version (such as Taurus Bulba or, just to make a wild guess, Splatter Phoenix). Taurus Bulba will rebuild F.O.W.L. from the ground up
The Ducktales 2017 Grand Finale has shown the organization being put to an end. However, apart from Black Heron and Bradford, many of its members simply disappeared from the story. Because Bulba is much more of a Card-Carrying Villain than Bradford, he will gather some of the former members as well as new ones to build a new F.O.W.L. with himself in command. We can at least expect Steelbeak to return. The Black Heron erased by Bradford was Actually A Doom Bot, and Team Darkwing will find this out the hard way.
At some point, some of Heron's old projects will start resurfacing, and Team Darkwing will investigate an old lab of hers near Saint Canard under the justified assumption that she's gone. She'll eventually show up and reveal that she cloned herself using one of her own feathers, the Stone Of What Was, and the Foreverglades Fountain water, just in case, and even Bradford himself was unaware. The kicker: instead of being mad at Bradford for the betrayal, she'll reiterate the pride her clone displayed before being erased as well as show pity for what Bradford suffered at Magica's hands. Steelbeak will take over as the leader of F.O.W.L.
With Bradford turned into a mindless buzzard, Black Heron dead, and Steelbeak increasing his intellect he is the surviving agent with the best chance of taking over the organization. There will be a Running Gag where Drake almost discovers Fenton is Gizmoduck
We can certainly expect to see Fenton again as he and Darkwing figure out how to save Waddlemeyer and, as with the original series, give Darkwing a (begrudging) helping hand as Gizmoduck from time to time. Carrying on from "The Last Adventure!", there will be moments where Darkwing nearly discovers Gizmoduck's alias but is unable to connect the dots, leading to either Cathartic Exhalation or Facepalms from the other characters.That is until things shake up for the next season and Darkwing finally realizes the truth. He will initially feel resentment towards Fenton and a sense of betrayal towards Launchpad for keeping this secret from him. Ultimately of course, he will come around to working with Gizmoduck when their friends need saving. The two will shake hands, agreeing to keep each other's identities a secret from the public.
Fenton and Gandra will have their own lab in St. Canard
That way, Fenton/Gizmoduck will be ready to assist Darkwing without making a trip from Duckberg. Gandra will also appear as Fenton's lab partner and a big contributor in the search for Gosalyn's grandfather. It's also worth noting that W.A.N.D.A., Darkwing's computer AI, was built by Fenton and has Gandra's voice. A later story arc will see the gradual rise of Quackwerks from the original Darkwing Duck comics.
The company will start off small in the background but slowly rise in prominence, both to the city and the plot, until it evolves into a large megacorp influencing pretty much everything in Saint Canard. The creation of the corporation will eventually be revealed to have been orchestrated by Taurus Bulba from within prison, who will then use the influence of his corporate conquest to engineer his own pardon. The old Show Within a Show meant to follow that ultimately unresolved cliffhanger up with the In-Universe introduction of Negaduck.
In the in-series show, the last episode before it was Cut Short ended on Darkwing discovering the villain was himself, played also by Jim Starling via splitscreen filming. If the show hadn't been cancelled, the next episode would've further explored the evil Darkwing, who would've gone through an Evil Costume Switch and started being addressed as Negaduck. Since Starling likely knew how this plot line would run before the cancellation, he will probably use that inside knowledge to model himself into the real-life Negaduck. The real troubling fact about this for our heroes is that Drake and Launchpad can't use their extensive knowledge of the old Darkwing Duck show to predict Negaduck, because he's a villain from unproduced episodes. Honker will be voiced by Atticus Shaffer and Tank will be voiced by Jason Marsden
Shaffer would be a great fit for an updated Honker Muddlefoot, having voiced other bird characters in the past (Ono in The Lion Guard, Dennis in Star vs. the Forces of Evil), while Marsden is no stranger to taking over roles that were previously held by Dana Hill (Max in A Goofy Movie). Stegmutt will appear
Only he is a non-sapient Stegosaurus that was revived by this universe's version of Dr. Fossil and used to attack St. Canard along with some other cloned dinosaurs. Darkwing, Gosalyn, and Launchpad will somehow tame him and make him their ally. Think Devil Dinosaur or Bumpy, if either one of them was a green Stegosaurus. Bonus points if he is updated to better conform with modern consensus about dinosaurs, like Tootsie before him.- And he'll end up having a Behemoth Battle against a Tyrannosaurus rex, possibly the reboot version of Johnny T. Rex who has been given the same treatment and updated (like the horizontal bird-like body and maybe some feathers). Which would double as a Mythology Gag to when Gosalyn asked Stegmutt if he fights tyrannosaurs with his spiked tail in the original Darkwing Duck episode "Jurassic Jumble".
Merlock will appear in Darkwing Duck reboot.
Given that Ducktales 2017 had habit of introducing characters from other Disney Afternoon shows, who's gonna say the same will apply for Darkwing Duck reboot, which will introduce the 2017 incarnation of Merlock from theatrical movie based on original Ducktales TV show. To make sense for him to appear in DW reboot, he will be linked to this 'verse incarnation of Morgana, having him as archenemy to Macawber family who had sworned to stop him from taking over the world with his black magic. Plus, him vs Darkwing would be super awesome! Theories about appearances/cameos of characters from other Disney Afternoon shows.
Given that Ducktales 2017 had characters from other Disney Afternoon shows appearing in it, who's to say the same thing will happen with Darkwing Duck? Here below are theories about those "special guests" characters:- TaleSpin: Given that Don Karnage had joined F.O.W.L in the finale, there's possibility he could return for DW reboot. The TaleSpin centered episode could have Darkwing teaming up with Kit and Molly to stop Sky Pirates from stealing something out of F.O.W.L orders.
- Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: The Rangers will be recurring characters due to joining S.H.U.S.H, and will often help Darkwing fight crime. Fat Cat and his gang will be created the same method as the Rangers by animal version of Dr. Nimnul, who's a F.O.W.L agent and older acquaintance of Black Heron.
- Goof Troop:
- Bonkers:
- Adventures of the Gummi Bears:
- Gargoyles: Hey, there also heroes "that flap in the night". The episodes centered around them would have foreshadow potential Manny spin-off. Similar to Merlock bit above, the DuckTales version of Puck could have had ties with Macawber family, while Xanatos vs Darkwing could be super sick.
- The Wuzzles: Along with Rhinokey and Butterbear, we could also see the rebooted versions of Bumblelion, Eleroo, Hoppopotamus, and Moosel. Plus with a Big Bad or Final Boss in Crocosaurus (updated to fit with modern depictions of dinosaurs). Likely F.O.W.L. would exploit them as attack monsters.
