When Disney’s reboot of its beloved cartoon DuckTales was first announced, Disney kept the cards pretty close to the chest and aside from a promotional image or two, didn’t reveal much else. When it finally premiered in 2017, it blew away expectations.
You can watch an episode almost any time of the day now, and a third season was announced shortly before the second season premiered a year ago. Although it appears that it won’t be premiering until later in 2020, we’re excited to see what’s in store. Here are a few things we’re hoping for.
Backdoor Pilots
No, not that kind of pilot (though he’s definitely been a highlight of the series as well). One of the best things that have been part of this new reboot is the inclusion of other characters that had their own TV series like Darkwing Duck. Last season introduced Don Carnage, a prominent villain from the ’90s show TaleSpin, and this season will introduce a few more characters from that show as well. While the appearances of these characters have never been mere throwbacks or Easter eggs, we’d love to see give a full reboot to another one of their ’90s shows. DuckTales has proven that they can build something bigger and better than the original. Giving that opportunity to another show or two wouldn’t be the worst thing, right?
Great Voice Actors
David Tennant had the unenviable job of filling the shoes of the voice of the original Uncle Scrooge, Alan Young. Throughout the course of the last two seasons, Tennant has proven himself more than capable and brought new angles to Scrooge that Young didn’t. Not only Tennant, but Bobby Moynihan, Ben Schwartz, and Danny Pudi have breathed new life in Huey, Dewey, and Louie (no offense to Russi Taylor, but the only way to tell the three apart in the original DuckTales were the colors). Don Cheadle even briefly voiced Donald for an episode where everyone could finally understand everything he was saying without subtitles. As Scrooge and the gang are always meeting new people on DuckTales, we’re looking forward to hearing the voices behind them as well.
More Of Donald’s Friends
Donald Duck has interacted with more than a few characters across Disney’s library of TV series and other animated projects. This past season even saw a brief but meaningful return of The Three Caballeros. We know that Goofy is set to make an appearance at some point during the season.
We’re hoping that he’s not the only one of Donald’s old friends that comes into his and Scrooge’s orbit. So far, DuckTales has managed to not just pick random pals from Donald’s past, but ones that play a part in giving him more depth. Whoever we see, we look forward to seeing Donald develop more as well.
Rescue Rangers Team-Up
One of the most surprising announcements to come out of this year’s Comic-Con appearance was the confirmed appearance of Chip and Dale and (presumably?) the Rescue Rangers team. This is perhaps the most fascinating development in the world of DuckTales because at no point in the original Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers episodes was there a nod to even Duckburg. The Rescue Rangers are also a rather physically small crew, so it will be interesting to see how they literally measure up with Scrooge and the gang. However they manage to crossover, we’re hoping it’s a team-up to remember.
Daisy And Donald Episode
Another announcement that came with the Comic-Con appearance was the first appearance of Daisy Duck on the show. While Donald has been completely fleshed out over the last two seasons, Daisy has yet to show up. Daisy has never been one to put up with Donald’s anger and the resulting antics, so perhaps that’s why they’ve been split apart? Given the backstories that the writers of DuckTales have been able to give to all the main characters and even some supporting characters, we’re hoping that Daisy and Donald’s relationship, and presumed break-up, get explained.
Negaduck
With the reboot of DuckTales inevitably came the question, “When will Darkwing Duck get a reboot?” Well, Disney’s chosen to go an interesting route with DuckTales by making their worlds collide from a different angle. They’ve made the show Darkwing Duck exist in DuckTales as its own TV show. Season two saw LaunchPad meet the actor who portrayed Darkwing Duck, Jim Starling and watch him meltdown as a new actor was set to take over the role.
Though the new actor tried to settle things down, Starling refused to go down without a fight, and at the end of the episode was revealed in Negaduck’s iconic suit. Negaduck was arguably the most formidable foe of Darkwing Duck and we’d love to see him go up against Scrooge and the gang in the next season.
F.O.W.L. Unleashed
The final minutes of the season two finale revealed that Scrooge’s board of directors were no ordinary vultures. Indeed, they were revealed to be the head of the infamous crime organization, F.O.W.L. (Fiendish Organization for World Larceny). After narrowly avoiding complete world annihilation from moon invaders, F.O.W.L. realized that they could no longer depend on Scrooge to keep them from being destroyed. F.O.W.L. is partly comprised of villains from Darkwing Duck’s gallery of rogues, so we’re hoping we get to see a few of them as well as F.O.W.L. executes what may be their endgame.
Magica De Spell’s Revenge
Magica De Spell was the overarching villain in season one but didn’t have quite the same centricity in season two. Certainly she has continued to play an important role, eventually teaming up with Scrooge’s number one enemy Flintheart Glomgold in one of the season’s final episodes, “Glomtales!” By this point, however, most of her magical powers had been reduced to nothing, leaving her performing simple magic tricks at kids’ birthday parties. We almost felt sad for her having to endure the antics of little kids at the DuckTales’ equivalent of Chuck E. Cheese. After a failed collaboration with Glomgold and other villains, we’re hoping she gets a real shot at revenge in season three.
Messing With The Theme Song
DuckTales has, without a doubt, one of the most iconic theme songs of ’90s kids TV. For the first time on the series, one episode featured a different spin on the song through Scrooge’s nemesis, Flintheart Glomgold in “GlomTales!” In another short on Disney Channel, though not officially on a DuckTales episode, LaunchPad even took a stab at singing the theme song, finally coming to the realization of the play on words with tails and ducks.
While there is certainly nothing wrong with the original song and we’ll probably have it stuck in our heads all day now, we enjoy another variation or two come next season.
Lots Of Heart
Disney has a plethora of old shows they can reboot and if everyone stopped watching DuckTales next season, Disney would simply move on to something else. But instead of just giving the series a new coat of paint and newer references to place it in the 2010s, the writers chose to come up with great adventures for Scrooge and the gang to go on as well as actually develop the characters over the course of the season. We may not always remember what happened beat-for-beat during the course of an episode, but we will remember how Huey, Dewey, and/or Louie gained new personal insights into themselves, Scrooge, or another character on the series. These have been the best creative decisions of the reboot, and we hope that the writers and creators continue to make such choices.
