Why did Emilio Estevez stop having the lead role in the third movie?
I am not asking why his character no longer was the coach- I am asking why the actor himself only made brief appearances instead of being the most important person in the story like the first and second movie.
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He was only doing it for the money. He'd made a deal that said his 3 million dollar pay cheque would finance his directorial film "The War at Home". I loved it, I think it's one of the best films of the late 90's, but the distribution deal it got sucked balls. Estevez was devastated, and nearly quit the film business due to his film's lack of success.
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https://lebeauleblog.com/2014/11/22/what-the-hell-happened-to-emilio-estevez/8/
Later that year, Estevez completed the Mighty Ducks trilogy with D3: The Mighty Ducks.share
In this one, the Ducks get scholarships to a prep school where they have to take on a snooty varsity team. It’s The Bad News Bears meets Animal House. Or something.
Estevez limited his involvement in the third movie. According to Steven Brill who wrote all three movies, “Emilio was directing a movie and made a deal where he would do whatever he did in our movie, three days’ work or four — a week’s work, a symbolic visit.”
The critics didn’t like the third Mighty Ducks any more than they liked the first two. But unlike the first two, Might Ducks 3 was not a hit at the box office. It opened in fourth place and grossed just over $22 million. It basically ended the franchise. I say “basically” because there have been talks of reviving the series because that’s what studios do these days.
It’s easy to dismiss The Mighty Ducks movies. I know I do. But for a certain generation of kids who grew up on them, these movies are fondly remembered.
Just a few weeks after Mighty Ducks 3 hit theaters, Estevez played a Vietnam veteran in the drama, The War at Home.
Estevez played a vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Martin Sheen and Kathy Bates played his parents who do not understand what their son is going through. Kimberly Williams played his younger sister.
This is the movie Estevez was directing that prevented him from participating more fully in Mighty Ducks 3. Under his deal with Disney, he appeared for a few days in the third Mighty Ducks and the studio provided $3 million dollars to finance The War at Home. Estevez cast his father, his sister, Renee Estevez and his daughter, Paloma Estevez.
He did it for money.
Plus we see that in D3, the "star of the movie" is no longer the coach, it's Charlie and his hormonal teenage struggles growing up.
There was a transition between Estevez and Jackson in the first 2 films
1st film; basically the entire plot centres around Estevez with Jackson basically being a side character and only slightly more important than the other players
2nd film; Estevez is still the lead but his role diminishes and Jackson takes a bigger role. The early scene with all the ducks getting rounded up, the roller hockey scenes and school scenes are all without Estevez and Jackson leading those scenes.
3rd film; Jackson clearly becomes the main character. Aside from the scene of Estevez threatening to sue, all his other scenes are supporting Jackson.
As mentioned it seemed Emilio was only sticking around for the money but the reality is what more can they do with his character? Both films had him undergo a transition; the first one showing him it's okay to lose sometimes and winning isn't everything. The second film success and power go to his head and it's basically the same thing; goes too far to win. Both films his players stand up to him and force him to be humbled and they start having fun near the end. They couldn't have gone back to the well with that kind of plot for him in the 3rd film. Even as it was, the new coach had a somewhat similar plot to Bombay in the first film, the difference being he doesn't get humbled and the players buy into his philosophy instead of having to bend like Estevez did.
Well said McFly, I agree. They couldn't repeat the whole Bombay screwing up and saving grace plot again. The new coach had many parallels to Bombay, except it was the students adapting instead of the coach. The philosophy of defense and likening it to living life when you're not in touch was a refreshing, and a rather deep philosophy for a teen disney film.
shareBombay coming back to be their coach would have made the movie even more cliched than it already was. Part of the theme was growing up (although they kind of somewhat abandoned that by having them become the Ducks again) and progressing through life and one way that theme was conveyed was them being able to accept the fact that Orion is now their coach and not Bombay.
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