The second season of the Disney+ original seriesThe Mighty Ducks: Game Changersfinds the team of underdogs-turned-winners and their coach, Alex Morrow (Lauren Graham) spending their summer at a hockey camp that they think will be a fun way to hang out together and celebrate getting their name back. Instead, what they find is an institute focused on competition and a coach, Colin Cole (Josh Duhamel), that only cares about winning, even if it’s hurting his relationship with his own son.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Graham and Duhamel talked about the evolving dynamic of Season 2, Duhamel being the new guy in this ensemble, working with such a welcoming cast, the growing dynamic between their characters, parent-child bonds, how Alex will ultimately feel about her hockey camp experience, and the renewed appreciation that Duhamel has for the sport of hockey.
Collider: Lauren, the first season of a show is always about figuring out what the show is, who the characters are, and what the dynamics are, and you had this whole cast of kids to establish relationships with. What was it like to jump into Season 2? Having that foundation, but also shaking things up with a new location and new cast members, did that feel the same but different?
LAUREN GRAHAM: In terms of Season 1 versus Season 2, it felt really solid. It definitely felt familiar. Everything about it that was new, was really fun. It was fun to be closer to home. With Season 1 being in peak pandemic times, we couldn’t travel. I loved Canada. I loved Vancouver, but we were all stuck there for the whole season. And so, everything about this just felt like a breath of fresh air. It was summertime. Josh was there, and he’s really fun and positive. The dynamic was really electric, in terms of where we start, in opposition to each other. The kids are a little bit older, and they’ve all gelled with one another. There’s so much fun to be had when you’re building a character from a foundation that’s already been set.
Josh, what’s it like to join a show like this in the second season? You’re playing this guy who’s in charge of pretty much everyone and everything, but there’s also organized chaos going on around him, so how was that?
JOSH DUHAMEL: It would’ve been a lot harder, had I come in to try to replace somebody’s character, but this is a whole new character with a whole new setting. So, yes, I was coming into a new show that had already been established, but at the time, they were coming into my space, in a strange way, which gave me some freedom to make it my own. Because of that, I was able to have a lot of fun with this guy. I loved how intense and how serious he takes hockey because I grew up with coaches like this. It was fun to take the piss out of some of them, and it gives you a long way to go. It gives you a lot of real estate to work with, when you start at a place that’s so aggro and so singularly focused on one thing. When you start breaking him down, you realize this guy has got a lot more issues than he puts out there. That is always something I look for in a character. How much room does this guy have to grow? How flawed is he? What is his pathology? On the outside, he looks like he’s got it all together, but underneath all that, he’s a guy who’s really grief-stricken and struggling to raise this kid. He desperately wants to connect with him, but doesn’t know how. And it’s because of Lauren [Graham] and her whole crew that it starts to give him a different perspective on things.
You’re no stranger to walking onto sets, but you’re coming into this show not having been in the first season and also not having been in the franchise. Did you have a moment where you got nervous, or does that go away, once you’re on set?
DUHAMEL: I get nervous, every time I go do a new job. It’s like the first day of school, and it’s even worse when you’re going into a school that’s already been established. In a movie, everybody’s there on the first day of school because it’s everybody’s first day of school. But this was something that had already been established. I was the new kid. I wanted to do a good job, and I had to be this big, loud coach. It’s either, you either dive in head first, or you sink. I had to just go for it, from the beginning. Thankfully, I had Lauren and this group of kids, who were just so fun to work with. They were just so professional for being so young still. They’re not kids, but they’re still young and professional, unaffected by the business, kind to each other, willing to try things, and were hospitable to me. They were open to it, and because of that, I felt really welcome, from the beginning.
Lauren, what would you say Alex’s first impression is of Coach Cole? He’s probably not someone she would ever want or would choose to have in her life, if it wasn’t a situation that had to be that way.
DUHAMEL: She was stuck with me, from the beginning. She had no choice.
GRAHAM: I think of that scene where we all stumble off the RV, and Josh was holding court. That was day one. You just never know. He had this big, wordy speech, and if I put myself in his shoes, I would’ve been nervous about that. It’s a lot to give somebody on their first day. And he was not only super commanding, and had all the background people listening to this every word, but he had to do it, over and over, for all the different angles. It’s a big show. We have cranes and drones, and all kinds of craziness, and I just was really impressed. It’s always helpful, as an actor, when the actor is also doing what the character is doing, which is just being super impressive. He’s got a big voice. Maybe he should be on stage. There was also an ease, which I knew we would have anyway. I was just so excited.
Is it fair to say that their impressions of each other will continue to change and evolve, this season? Are they going to get to a point where they might actually have some respect for each other and maybe even have some sparks between them?
DUHAMEL: You’ll just have to watch. The writers did an amazing job of putting us in opposite corners, and starting from places that were unattainable, as far as reaching each other, and I loved that. I loved the unpredictability of the writing. You can probably guess certain things, but it’s how you get there. It’s the journey to get there that is always most exciting to me, and whether or not you believe it. There’s nothing I hate worse than predictable stuff. You don’t wanna be like, “Oh, God, here they go. This is the part where they do this. This is the part where they do that.” There’s real conflict before any resolution is found. Kudos to the writers for keeping it real.
There’s such an interesting dynamic between Alex and her son, and this new coach and his son, that also extends to each of those kids wanting to spend time with the other’s parent. Lauren, what is it like for Alex to go on this journey with her son, where he doesn’t really want a whole lot to do with her?
GRAHAM: He didn’t want a lot to do with me last season either. I think that’s very real. It’s the struggle of, “I’m here for you kids. Notice that. Appreciate it.” It’s the kind of thing where, as people, he’ll turn to her in the middle of college and be like, “Hey, that was really cool, what you did.” It makes more sense, now that he’s an adolescent. Can you imagine your mother comes with you to camp and lives on the floor? What a nightmare. So, I get that he has to reject me, just to look cool. He may have appreciated me pulling him out of the stressful sports world, initially, but he likes it. He’s good. I have to wrestle with that feeling of, “Okay, it’s not for me, but maybe it is for him.” I think I would feel that way, if I had a kid who was really intense and sportsy. I would just be like, “Really? It’s all of those Saturdays? Are you sure?” I think it’s really pretty real. It just gave me an opportunity to have so many scenes with all the kids, which was really fun. They’re all really fantastic. And I thought Naveen [Paddock], who plays Jace, was a great addition.
Josh, do you feel like it helps melt the audience’s feelings toward your character a little bit, to see him with Evan? Initially, I thought he was going to be a jerk to everybody, but we do get to see him actually have some nice moments with Evan.
DUHAMEL: Yeah. That’s a credit to the writers. I never saw that coming, the idea that the only way that I can get through to my son is through her, and the only way that she can get through to her son is through me. Having a nine-year-old son myself, I can understand how that works because a lot of times, he doesn’t do things with me, but he’ll do them with other people. It hurts my feelings, but I get it. It makes me check myself because maybe I’m pushing too hard. In a lot of ways, I can draw off of my experience, as a dad. Even though I don’t have a teenager or a kid that’s this age, I had three younger sisters, so I got to see that and how that whole dynamic played out. I think that we did a really good job of establishing this guy as one thing, and then giving him a lot of room to evolve throughout the season. At least he had the awareness and the openness to see that he was missing the mark on some aspects of his life and his parenting skills, and he was willing to acquiesce and learn. At the end of the day, all we care about is making sure that our kids are healthy and happy and safe. It’s humbling to have to admit that you need help, and you don’t measure up, in all aspects.
Lauren, by the end of this season, do you think that Alex is ultimately glad she ended up on this trip that was very much not what she thought it would be? Does she wish that maybe she had never taken this path? How does she feel, after all of this?
DUHAMEL: Such a great question.
GRAHAM: I don’t think she’ll regret it, at all. Seasons of watching characters fail and succeed are interesting, if there’s growth. That’s what we’re watching for. We’re watching to see if it mirrors our own journey, or our own understanding of how people affect one another. Especially in a kid’s show, when they are growing up in real-time, as they are, you wanna feel like, “Oh, I got something out of that. I see myself better. I see my child better. I see this group of people better.” I think the show really accomplishes that. There is a nostalgia that does creep in for the experience of being all thrown together and getting something out of it, and really coming together and feeling closer, at the end. I think that’s what happens.
Josh, you’ve talked about having a bit of a background in hockey, but that you’ve been away from it for a bit and are coming back to it for this. Did doing this give you an appreciation, coming back to the sport, that you maybe hadn’t had when you were actually playing?
DUHAMEL: Absolutely, it did. I had forgotten about the sport, in a lot of ways. Of course, I watched it, and I’m a fan of it, but as far as me playing the sport, I gave that up 30 or 35 years ago. I wasn’t expecting this little wrinkle to happen in my life. It’s one of those things where, as an actor, I get to polish up an old skill that I used to love when I was a kid. It brought back a lot of joy that I had, as a kid playing hockey. I got a chance to put the pads back on and tie the skates back up and get back out there and practice skating again. That’s the beauty of this job that we get to do. You get to learn things and do things that you wouldn’t otherwise ever do. I would never have put skates on and gone out and worked as hard as I had at skating. I’m so glad that I had the chance to do it again because now I feel like I can go play in some old man’s league in L.A. and have a lot of fun.
