DuckTales Reboot Cancelled By Disney
The beloved DuckTales reboot has been axed by Disney.
This article is more than 2 years old
DuckTales is one of the most beloved original properties from the Disney canon. When the series was given a reboot back in 2017, fans were more than a little cautious about seeing it revived. However, the show was a big hit with fans and critics. Unfortunately, it looks like it hasn’t been receiving the viewers it needs to stay afloat and Disney has cancelled the show after three seasons.
The DuckTales reboot was an impressive feat, wrangling notable actors for its voice roles. Former Doctor Who star David Tennant provided the voice for Scrooge McDuck, the wealthy uncle who funded the many adventures of the show. His three nephews – Huey, Dewey, and Louie – were played by comedic luminaries Danny Pudi (Community), Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog), and Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live). And the show had an embarrassing number of guest stars. Just give this cast list a peek and you’ll see how incredible it was.
And DuckTales seemed to be building out the rest of its universe in its most recent seasons. In Season 2, the show introduced Darkwing Duck and it looks to have paid off. A new reboot series of the superhero cartoon has been announced for the streaming service Disney+. The reboot series also began introducing characters from other familiar Disney cartoons such as the Rescue Rangers, the version of Goofy from Goof Troop, and characters from shows like TaleSpin and Bonkers. The last season even referenced Gene the Genie, the character from the former film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.
Unfortunately, it looks like Disney might have screwed up some of the accessibility for DuckTales. The series aired on the channel Disney XD, a spinoff from its more popular Disney Channel. Add to that the fact that the series was not being updated on Disney+ and it made it a tougher experience for fans to see. There is probably a very good reason why the new version of Darkwing Duck is headed straight to Disney+ instead of Disney XD or the Disney Channel. It sounds like these reboot series will fare better on the streaming service than on traditional broadcast television.
This just goes to show that the ability to watch a show is going to be even more important moving forward with media distribution. DuckTales received near-universal praise from critics and fans, but the fact that it was on a less popular channel likely hurt its ability to gain a large number of viewers. If the show had been able to capture an audience through Disney+, maybe it would have been able to stick around for a longer run. However, the original 1987 series also only ran for three seasons. Perhaps it was always meant to have this short of a run? Considering the number of new elements they were introducing, that’s a little hard to believe.
Hopefully, the DuckTales crew will be able to reunite one day for a farewell special of some sort. If not, we will just have to enjoy the exceptional series we have now. Perhaps if the Darkwing Duck series does well on Disney+, we could see new versions of some of these other beloved properties. Fingers crossed that we will get to see this team work together again.
