Disney+ has canceled the John Stamos-led original series “Big Shot” and sequel series “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” after two seasons at the streamer.
From co-creator David E. Kelley, the dramedy “Big Shot” starred Stamos as men’s basketball coach Marvyn Korn, who found himself ousted from the NCAA and picking up a new job coaching a girls team at a private high school. The cast also featured Jessalyn Gilsig, Yvette Nicole Brown, Richard Robichaux, Sophia Mitri Schloss, Nell Verlaque, Tiana Le, Monique Green, Tisha Custodio and Cricket Wampler.
Kelley served as executive producer alongside co-creators Dean Lorey and Brad Garrett, along with Bill D’Elia. The show premiered in April 2021 and returned for a second season in October 2022.
“The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers,” starring Lauren Graham, followed up the action of Steve Brill’s 1992 hockey classic in the present day, as the Mighty Ducks evolved from underdogs to an elite youth team. After young player Evan (Brady Noon) is cut from the competitive group, he and his mom (played by Graham) team up with Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez, reprising his role from the movie) to form a new team to compete against the Mighty Ducks.
Estevez exited the show ahead of its second season, with Josh Duhamel joining the cast as former NHL player Colin Cole, who ran a rigorous summer hockey institute in California that the team attended. Estevez previously clarified reports that his decision to leave the series was not over the ABC Signature studio’s vaccine mandate.
“I am not anti-vaxx. Full stop,” Estevez said in a statement in November 2021, revealing he had contracted COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic and still suffered from symptoms at the time.
“In the final analysis, this was nothing more than a good old fashioned contract dispute and not, as some would believe an anti-vaccine position,” he added. “My exit from the show was due to a myriad of creative differences – any other narrative is false.”
The latest batch of episodes also featured a cameo appearance from Elden Henson and Aaron Lohr, who reprised their roles as the Bash Brothers from the original film.
Brill served as executive producer on “Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” along with showrunners Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, Estevez Michael Spiller and James Griffiths, along with George Heller, Brad Petrigala, Jon Avnet and Jordan Kerner. Graham also served as co-executive producer.
Both seasons of “Big Shot” and “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers” are currently streaming on Disney+.
