Disney Once Developed a Lizzie McGuire Reboot Without Hilary Duff

Should the Lizzie McGuire revival planned for Disney+ lose returning star Hilary Duff, who has publicly pushed back against a creative overhaul giving the on-pause series a "PG rating," there could be a picture perfect plan already in place for more Lizzie McGuire without Duff: a high school-set reboot. After Disney announced the sequel series with Duff at D23 Expo in August, Nina Bargiel, an executive story editor and screenwriter on the original series that aired for 65 episodes on Disney Channel, revealed Disney was developing a rebooted Lizzie McGuire without Duff because the star said she "didn't want to return."

It was only after Duff expressed interest in reprising her role in a 2018 interview that the Lizzie McGuire reboot, pitched to Bargiel by original series executive producer Stan Rogow, shifted into a sequel with Duff back as a 30-year-old Lizzie navigating life as a working professional in New York City. In the early months of 2019, Bargiel wrote on Twitter, "I was told that I was no longer going to be involved."

Months later, in January, it was reported original series creator Terri Minsky exited the role of showrunner and executive producer after filming two episodes of the followup series.

"Fans have a sentimental attachment to Lizzie McGuire and high expectations for a new series," said a Disney spokesperson. "After filming two episodes, we concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show."

Amid a search for a new showrunner, Disney earlier this week said production was paused on Lizzie McGuire to "allow time for some creative re-development." When production resumes, this new direction will "tell an authentic story that connects to the millions who are emotionally invested in the character, and a new generation of viewers too," a spokesperson said.

When it was learned the streaming service was relocating Love, Victor — a series centered on a gay teen and inspired by Love, Simon — from Disney+ to Hulu because it's not "family-friendly," Duff responded to that news on Instagram, writing it "sounds familiar." (Content included in Love, Victor reportedly involved "alcohol use, parents' marital issues, and sexual exploration.")

Variety reported Minsky and Duff wanted a "more adult" version of the show aimed at audiences that have grown up in the 15-plus years since Lizzie was in middle school.

Earlier this week, a report from Variety said the series could move forward on Disney+ if a newly selected showrunner can balance Duff and Disney's desires, but according to sources, such a compromise is "increasingly unlikely," putting the series in danger of losing Duff. A Disney spokesperson denied Lizzie is being scrapped altogether.

Addressing the rocky situation in an Instagram post published Friday, Duff said she maintains a "passion" to relaunch the series, preferably on Disney-controlled Hulu, away from the mostly "PG" restrictions imposed on Disney+ content.

"I feel a huge responsibility to honor the fans' relationship with Lizzie who, like me, grew up seeing themselves in her. I'd be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old's journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating," Duff said in the statement shared to her nearly 15 million subscribers. "It's important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen / teenage navigating life were authentic, her next chapters are equally as real and relatable. It would be a dream if Disney would let us move the show to Hulu, if they were interested, and I could bring this beloved character to life again."

While Duff and Minsky plotted a more adult-oriented series, it would not be without Lizzie's animated counterpart also voiced by Duff. The actress confirmed at D23 Expo the revival would continue to include the "13-year-old, no-holds-barred, animated Lizzie that's constantly babbling in her adult-Lizzie head."

"I am so proud of the two episodes we did," former showrunner Minsky told Variety. "Hilary has a grasp of Lizzie McGuire at 30 that needs to be seen. It's a wonderful thing to watch. I would love the show to exist, but ideally, I would love it if it could be given that treatment of going to Hulu and doing the show that we were doing. That's the part where I am completely in the dark."

"It's important to me that this show was important to people," Minsky added. "I felt like I wanted to do a show that was worthy of that kind of devotion."

In January, footage from Minsky's episodes briefly appeared in a trailer highlighting the feature films and original series coming to the streaming service in 2020. Episodes of the original Lizzie McGuire are available for streaming on Disney+.