Disney+ greenlit a Darkwing Duck revival with Mark Hamill voicing the hero and Seth Rogen as Launchpad McQuack. Jim Cummings, who voiced the character for 91 episodes, is not part of the cast. The recast comes weeks after he was left off Disney’s Legends class.
Darkwing Duck is coming back, and he sounds different.
Disney+ greenlit a new animated Darkwing Duck series Sept. 22, 35 years after the original premiered. Mark Hamill voices Drake Mallard, the mild-mannered duck behind the mask.
Seth Rogen plays Launchpad McQuack. He’s also producing.
The name missing from the cast list is the one longtime fans will notice first.
Jim Cummings voiced Darkwing for 91 episodes
Jim Cummings originated the role in 1991 and voiced it across all 91 episodes. He came back to the character in Disney’s rebooted DuckTales in 2017.
He is not in the new series.
Recasting happens all the time in animation revivals. Voice actors age, schedules conflict, and creative teams want a different read. None of that is unusual.
Last month, Cummings was left off Disney’s 2026 Legends class, which honored Dwayne Johnson, the Jonas Brothers and former CEO Bob Iger, among others. Fans called the omission a travesty given his four decades with the company. Cummings responded by resharing their complaints and posting a video of himself outside D23 captioned “no comment,” set to “The Sound of Silence.”
Four weeks later, one of his signature characters was recast.
Disney has not connected the two, and there is no evidence they are related. But for a fan base that spent August arguing Cummings deserved more recognition, September delivered a different answer.
Who else is in the cast
Disney assembled a large ensemble:
Mark Hamill as Drake Mallard, a.k.a. Darkwing Duck
Seth Rogen as Launchpad McQuack
Lizzy Caplan as Gosalyn Mallard
Lilimar as Duckie, a new character
Dan Stevens as Glade McTowers
Tiffany Shepis as Rosa
Kathryn Newton as Firecracker
Teo Briones as Timb
Tyler Dean Flores as Pondsy
Katie Rich as Officer Shanks
Nat Faxon as Officer Webb
The story picks up 35 years later
The premise leans on the gap between shows.
“For the last 35 years, Darkwing Duck has been trapped in his worst nightmare: an alternate world that’s never heard of his superhero exploits,” the official logline reads.
A rebellious teenager named Duckie, who knows all about his past, shows up and drags him back into action. Together they face old enemies like Negaduck and Megavolt, and reunite with Launchpad, Gosalyn and Morgana.
Disney released a first-look image showing the new animation style. The costume is close to the original, with one addition: Darkwing now wears a belt.
It ignores the DuckTales version
This is a real creative choice, and fans will have opinions.
Disney’s 2017 DuckTales reboot ran an elaborate Darkwing storyline. Cummings played Jim Starling, a washed-up actor who once played Darkwing on TV and turned into the villain Negaduck after being recast. A younger actor then became the real Darkwing.
The new series does not continue that. It’s a sequel to the original 1991 show instead.
So the DuckTales arc, which was built around an actor losing his signature role, is being set aside. That is either a coincidence or the most on-the-nose piece of television history this year.
This has been in the works since 2020
The project is not new.
A Darkwing revival was first announced in development in 2020, from the same combination of Disney Branded Television and Point Grey Pictures. It took six years to reach a series order.
Sean Tretta and Borja Peña Gorostegui wrote the series and serve as executive producers. Rogen produces with Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex McAtee and Gabby Grantham.
Original creator Tad Stones consulted.
“Like every other fan of the original show, I’m excited to see Darkwing getting dangerous again in a whole new series,” Stones said. “The new creative team has certainly amped up the action and comedy without forgetting the Disney heart.”
The Point Grey team was blunter. “Disney said ‘Let’s get dangerous’ and we said ‘hell yeah.’”
Disney has been building to this
The anniversary push started earlier this year.
Darkwing Duck was one of 10 properties in Disney’s Fanniversary Frenzy merchandise collection at D23 in August, marking its 35th. It sat on that list next to Beauty and the Beast and Alice in Wonderland, which raised eyebrows at the time.
Now it’s clear why the duck got a capsule, but unclear why Disney seems to be shafting Jim Cummings.
Disney has not announced a premiere date.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
Variety (Sept. 22, 2026), the series order, the full voice cast, the logline, the production team and the original series history
Deadline (Sept. 22, 2026), the 2020 development announcement and the Tad Stones quote
The Hollywood Reporter and TheWrap (Sept. 22, 2026), the cast credits and the Point Grey statement
Collider (Sept. 22, 2026), the detail that the new series bypasses the DuckTales storyline and continues from the original
ABC7 Los Angeles (Sept. 22, 2026), the first-look image and the episode count. ABC is owned by Disney
ScreenRant and ComicBook (Sept. 22, 2026), the first-look costume details
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