Mighty Ducks reboot stars B.C. actor born 15 years after the first movie hit theatres

"The Mighty Ducks" are back on the ice Actor Kiefer O’Reilly shares a preview of the new series “The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers”. CTV Morning Live

Vancouver — The Vancouver-area actor starring in a reboot of the Mighty Ducks wasn’t even born when the original film came out in 1992.

A new series, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, on DisneyPlus, is breathing new life into the kids’ hockey series.

Kiefer O’Reilly, 13, plays Logan in the new series.

“He’s the Canadian hockey fellow,” explained O’Reilly in an interview with CTV Morning Live in Vancouver.

The original films were centred on the trials and tribulations of a pee-wee hockey team that was the worst in its league. In the new series, the Ducks have grown into an elite level hockey team, and the show focuses on a group of kids who form a team of underdogs after failing to make the cut.

O’Reilly, a resident of the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam, was born a decade and a half after the original The Mighty Ducks hit theatres and grew up playing hockey.

The role, he says, was a natural fit, and he was familiar with the story lines even though the movies were made long before he was born.

“I was born playing hockey, so I grew up with those movies,” he says of the original films.

“I obviously rewatched all of the films three times, for my research.”

The series, which starts airing on March 26, was filmed in Vancouver during the pandemic.

“It was my first COVID movie; it was somewhat normal other than just sanitizing a lot and using masks,” he said.

O’Reilly’s previous acting work includes roles on When Calls the Heart, The Good Doctor and The Twilight Zone, among others.