The Mighty Ducks is one of the most beloved franchises thanks to its humor and charming characters, but it was originally darker, and even Gordon Bombay’s name has a dark origin. Sports and film often mix to bring inspiring stories to the big screen, and while most aim for a more dramatic tone, there are some that have relied more on a light-hearted, comedy vibe that has helped them become very popular. Such is the case of The Mighty Ducks, released in 1992, which was so popular it spawned a franchise and made way for a real, professional hockey team.
Directed by Stephen Herek and written by Steven Brill, The Mighty Ducks tells the story of a struggling youth league hockey team under the coaching of Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez), a former hockey player and now a defense attorney who is assigned as coach of District 5’s Pee-Wee hockey team as part of his community service. Bombay has to confront many of his past demons while guiding the young players to their first victory. The Mighty Ducks wasn’t the critics’ favorite but it was very well received by the audience, who helped it become a box office success, which in turn led to a franchise with three movies, two TV shows, and the creation of the real-world NHL team now known as the Anaheim Ducks.
The Mighty Ducks is often described as a “feel good” movie, and as it is a Disney production, it has that lighthearted tone that defines most of Disney’s works aimed at a young audience. However, the initial plans for the story were pretty dark, as revealed by Brill in an interview with NHL. When asked about the process of writing The Mighty Ducks, Brill shared that it was originally darker than the final product, all due to the personal struggles of Estevez’s Gordon Bombay. Brill explained that he came up with the story of Bombay getting arrested for drunk driving, which is what leads to him becoming the Ducks’ coach, and his name is actually linked to that complicated side of Bombay’s story. Brill told NHL that he was drinking gin at the time, and he had two bottles: one was Gordon’s, the other was Bombay, and that's how he came up with the name.
The tone of The Mighty Ducks changed once Disney acquired the story and made it lighter and more family-friendly, though it kept Bombay’s DIU as the triggering event of the story, and instead of Bombay having a drinking problem, it was the result of one too many drinks during a celebration for his 30th successful case. Gordon Bombay returned in D2: The Mighty Ducks and D3: The Mighty Ducks and continued his career as a coach after playing in the minor leagues for a while, with a career-ending knee injury sending him back to coaching. Bombay returned in the TV series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, now as the owner of an ice rink and with a personality just like when viewers first met him: bitter and hating hockey, again. Of course, Bombay eventually returned to hockey though not exactly as he did in the movies, and as the series was renewed for a second season, fans can expect more of Gordon Bombay in the near future.
It’s hard to tell if The Mighty Ducks would have had the same impact as it did had it kept its darker vibe and focused on Gordon Bombay’s alcoholism and inner demons rather than on his dynamic with the team, which is what Disney ultimately went for, but at least the studio let Brill keep that part of Bombay’s life, even if just briefly and as the trigger of the story. Whether future Mighty Ducks material will go back to that darker side of Bombay or not is unknown, but fans can imagine what the franchise would have been like had the original plan been kept.