Disney’s long-gestating Darkwing Duck reboot is moving forward, and it is moving forward without Jim Cummings. The actor who originated the role in 1991 says the studio is hiring a new voice to play the caped crimefighter, a recast he confirmed himself in a red carpet interview with Collider published Friday.
Cummings did not hide how he feels about it. “I hope they get… everything they deserve,” he told the outlet, adding that he did not know what else to say about the decision. According to Cummings, the recasting goes beyond the lead. He says the production is also hiring a new actor for Launchpad McQuack, the sidekick role played in the original series by Terry McGovern.
He Recorded A Pilot Years Ago
Cummings told Collider he recorded a pilot for the revival several years back to test whether the series could work again, and that the response was enthusiastic. Disney is now bringing the show back anyway, he says, just not with him in the booth.
That makes this a sharp reversal from what Cummings himself was saying only months ago. In March, he told ScreenRant on the Saturn Awards red carpet that the reboot was long overdue, that one offshoot had been recorded, and that the new series would keep the tone of the original while aging Gosalyn into an adult. Fans who met him at conventions as recently as 2024 came away with the impression he would reprise the role. Disney has not announced casting, a premiere window, or any production details, so everything known about the current state of the project comes from Cummings’ own account.
The Reboot So Far
A new Darkwing Duck series was first reported in November 2020 as a Disney+ project from Point Grey Pictures, the production company of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Original series creator Tad Stones has said in later interviews that he is attached as a creative consultant. Updates since then have been scarce enough that fans periodically assumed the show was dead, only for Cummings to confirm at appearances that work was continuing.
The original Darkwing Duck debuted in syndication in 1991 and ran for 91 episodes across three seasons, with Cummings voicing mild-mannered Drake Mallard and his masked alter ego. The character returned in the 2017 DuckTales reboot, where Cummings instead played Jim Starling, the embittered actor who once portrayed Darkwing on television, while Chris Diamantopoulos voiced the new Drake Mallard who takes up the mantle. Starling’s turn into the villain Negaduck was widely read as a setup for the standalone series. In an odd twist, that DuckTales arc was literally the story of Darkwing being recast with a younger actor.
A Rough Month For Cummings
The news lands weeks after Cummings was passed over for the Disney Legends class announced at D23, a snub that drew loud fan backlash the actor himself amplified. TheDisneyScoop covered how Cummings reshared fan outrage over the omission within hours of the ceremony. After nearly four decades of voicing characters for the company, from Winnie the Pooh starting in 1988 to Darkwing Duck since 1991, the actor has now been handed a second disappointment in the span of a single month.
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