Emilio Estevez joined The Current's Jill Riley for a conversation about returning to the iconic role of Gordon Bombay in the new Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. After all these years, how's Gordon doing? It sounds like he's going to need a little help.

Jill Riley: Emilio Estevez, how are you?

Emilio Estevez: I'm doing very well, thank you. How are you?

Awesome. Well, I'm Jill Riley from The Current's Morning Show, Minnesota Public Radio, and so I think being that I'm in Minnesota we've got a special connection with The Mighty Ducks franchise, so...

Yeah, I love the Twin Cities. I've shot in all three Mighty Ducks there, of course, but I was there in 1984 shooting a very little-seen movie called That Was Then... This Is Now, which was based on an S.E. Hinton novel — the only one that wasn't shot in in Tulsa, Oklahoma — but the producers of that film hailed from from the Twin Cities and insisted that we shoot it there, so I've done four movies in the Twin Cities and I'm so fond of the area and and the people. I was reminded the other day about sitting on the steps of the Cathedral, you know, at dawn after a full night of shooting and just raising a beverage, if you will, and toasting the sunrise. There's just there's just something so incredibly magical about being there, and I just love it there.

That's great. I used to live right behind the Cathedral. I just loved living in that neighborhood. So, okay, well, here we are! You know, I heard rumblings...gosh, a while back that there was going to be something in the works in the Mighty Ducks franchise, and so I kind of wondered to myself, well, I wonder if it's going to take place in Minnesota. I wonder if it's going to shoot here. Is it going to be a movie? What is it going to be? And then of course the pandemic hit and then it was kind of like, okay, I wonder whatever happened to that. So now this series: you're back in the role as Gordon Bombay and, you know, it's present-day Minnesota and so I wonder, you know, it was what, 1992 when the first Mighty Ducks movie came out? When were you approached about playing this character again, and what was your reaction?

So a couple years ago the the original creator of the original franchise, Steve Brill, approached me and said, "This is happening. We're developing it. Are you interested?" And I just...I wasn't in a headspace to to embrace it. I'd really been in the independent film world for the last 25 years. I kind of exited mainstream fare the same year that I shot Mighty Ducks 3. I also did a cameo in Mission Impossible and then I went off into the wilderness and I kind of packed my bags and I said, I'm gonna...if I'm gonna be an independent filmmaker and a storyteller, this is the time to do that.

And I took off and I made, you know, what I believe were very socially relevant movies. The first one was The War at Home where I dealt with PTSD. The next one was Rated X, where it was dealt with fratricide. Bobby Kennedy's assassination in Bobby. Spiritual journey with The Way, and then the intersectionality of homelessness and social infrastructure with The Public, and so I really was in that sort of...in that head space and been there for the last 25 years.

Yet, you know, independent filmmaking is a very lonely place and it's a very difficult place to dwell when you're always having to go out and sort of beg people for money to make your films. So, as Steve and I continued to have these conversations it was like, look, you know we believe you would be a wonderful asset to this. I think people would love to see you come back and you know, as I spend time in what Hollywood calls the "flyover states," I spend time going in the Midwest, driving and talking to people, and that's where I think where you get your best intel, where you get your environmental scanning as it were, and people will tell you what they want, and the the feedback oftentimes is we'd like to see you play Gordon Bombay again. We'd like to see you play Billy the Kid again. We'd love to see you back on screen in anything for that matter, but we'd love for you to play these two characters. We'd love to see that.

And so you hear that enough times and what's the old saying? If three people tell you you're drunk it's time to sit down? I kind of took that to heart and...I was actually in a bar in Minnesota, I'm sorry, in Cincinnati a few years ago, and I was having a conversation with Steve and we hung up and I started to poll the folks inside and it was then that I began the conversations in earnest.

Yeah it's...you know, you've done movies that have cult followings, but there's something about, I think The Mighty Ducks generation that of all the parts you've played I think people anywhere at that, you know, the older end of the millennials, the younger end of gen X, they're...you know, that's, you know, Emilio Estevez to a certain generation is Gordon Bombay.

Right, right. And listen, if you're a young actor, if you're an actor period, and you have an opportunity to have a few movies or one movie on your resume that that transcends generations and stands the test of time, you're lucky. Fortunately I've had, whether it's Breakfast Club or Repo Man or The Outsiders or The Mighty Ducks, I've been involved with films that just continue to have this, this shelf life. That was not part of a plan, because when you're an actor it's like somebody says yes after hundreds and hundreds of rejections, you're like, yes, I'm in, I'll do it! You never know what's going to happen with any one particular title. I've been blessed that, that I've been able to play characters and and be in films, acting in movies that that have stood that test of time and have connected to a lot of generations.

I'm talking with Emilio Estevez, back in the role of Gordon Bombay. The new series &38212; so it's not a film, it's a series — Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, premiering on Disney+ March 26. So, Friday, March 26, and it would seem the Mighty Ducks have changed. The team has changed. You can't remain the underdog forever if you're a winner, right? Things are going to change, and it would seem that that your character has changed.

He has, he has. He's soft, he's sad, and he's sleeping on the couch of his office, which is where he lives, and, you know, when we see him he's kind of given up on life. He's disengaged. He's, you know, subsisting on birthday cake and leftover pizza from from kids' birthday parties at the ice rink. He's kind of a sad sack, and he's not interested in engaging on any level, and it's through Lauren Graham's character Alex and the kids needing a place to practice that help pull him out of his shell. The advantage you have with the television show and especially, well, limited, is you've got 10 episodes. You've got five hours of content in which to unroll and unspool the story as well as create...allow for a lot of time for these characters to develop. So obviously we know that Gordon Bombay is not going to be the same guy by episode 10 as he's introduced in episode one, so....but but the beauty of this, and this is, again, my first foray into TV, of having this sort of time to dig into a character and and allow for it to develop and unfold.

So this series, shot in Canada...now, did that have to do...

Don't get me started. Don't get me started. I think that that, you want to talk about patriotism, patriotism is keeping your your U.S. dollars in the United States and employing American workers and American film technicians and I, whenever possible, I have made that my my mission. So, yes, I've been...shooting this in Canada was not my choice. I would have obviously been, preferred to have been in the Twin Cities and shooting, but obviously with the issue of the pandemic, it was hard enough to to shoot a film during that time where everybody's masking up and there's no socializing and there's no community.

That was really what we felt as as actors, as producers, there was no opportunity to hang out, to chat, to work through things. It was you're in your trailer and you're brought out and the masks come off and you say your lines and you're back in your trailer and that's the reason I'm, you know, I'm so fond of being a part of this this industry is that it's about the relationships that you create and it's about the people that you get to spend time with on set and there was none of that and it was, it was a real disappointment that relationships had to be through, you know, masks and Zoom calls.

Yeah, I imagine that was a challenge. We're pretty understanding, though, in Minnesota because we're so close to Canada that, you know, it's not the first time that a film that's located in Minnesota, shot in Canada. But, you know, it's all the circumstances and I bet it was hard because, you know, even when you're filming a series about, you know, team mentality to not be able to have that team mentality behind the scenes, it sounds like it was a challenge.

Well, Emilio, I know that I have to let you go. I know you're a busy man, and just let me tell you this has been this has been a great time just being able to talk to you for a couple minutes.

Thanks, Jill. I hope to do it in person. I hope I'm in the Twin Cities sometime soon.

Seriously, stop by! You can come to Minnesota Public Radio anytime. I know you've been here...I've got a great conversation piece in our studio, which is a picture that we took about 10 years ago. You were here promoting The Way, and I have a way of finding out information. I've been at MPR for a long, long time and I totally, like, got you with the camera, so thank you for that.

I loved it. That was part of our bus tour. We did a 50-day, almost 30-city bus tour to promote The Way, and and I do remember coming through and spending time in the Twin Cities for that.

Oh my gosh, all right, well you take care and best of luck. Again, Emilio Estevez back in the role as Gordon Bombay. Mighty Ducks: Game Changers premieres on Disney+ on Friday, March 26.

Take care. Thanks, y'all, I appreciate it. We'll see you in the studio soon.