It’s been a rough few months for once-promising reboots and revivals, as not only did the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, with Sarah Michelle Gellar reprising the role of Buffy, get suddenly shelved, but the live-action Gargoyles that was in development is also sadly no longer happening. Thankfully, the Darkwing Duck reboot is still in development, but unfortunately the project just received an incredibly disappointing update for two of its biggest roles.
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The Darkwing Duck reboot delighted fans when it was revealed that Jim Cummings was set to reprise his role as Darkwing. Sadly, that’s now changed, as in an interview with Collider regarding his newest project Coyote vs. Acme, Cummings revealed he is being recast, and the same is true of Terry McGovern, who played the original Launchpad McQuack.
“I did a pilot for it several years ago, to see the viability of it coming back, and everybody went nuts. And they are bringing it back, and they’re hiring somebody else to do Terry McGovern’s role of Launchpad, and they’re hiring somebody else to be Darkwing Duck. I hope they get…everything they deserve. Crazy, I don’t know what to tell you,” Cummings said.
Darkwing Duck Recastings Seem To Be A Recent Change, But Why?
The new Darkwing Duck reboot is really a revival, at least from the details that have been revealed thus far. In March of this year, Cummings gave a positive update that the long-in-development project was still active and happening, and even revealed that Gosalyn was grown up in this version, indicating that some significant time has passed since the original.
“Well, we’ve only recorded basically one offshoot so far, but the thing is, if it’s not broke, you don’t fix it. Gosalyn’s grown up. So that’s interesting. But yeah, you stay tuned,” Cummings told ScreenRant.
Up until now it seemed that everyone was on the same page and moving towards a true revival, but now both Cummings and McGovern are not returning as the two biggest characters in the show. That’s a truly surprising shift, especially when you consider that not only did they already record a test pilot, but they brought Cummings back for the delightful Darkwing origin story in the DuckTales reboot.
The question then becomes why recast at all, especially given that more often than not, bringing back a nostalgic franchise is almost always bolstered by having the original actors attached to at least a few key roles, and it doesn’t get more key in this series than Darkwing Duck. Cummings seems baffled by the change as well, so whenever the actual cast is revealed, hopefully that is followed by some context regarding why the change was made in the first place.
