Hilary Duff Speaks Out on Her Hopes for “Dead” Lizzie McGuire Revival

This week sees the debut of How I Met Your Father, the Hulu series spinning off of the iconic CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. At the center of the new series is star Hilary Duff, who has years of television experience under her belt, beginning with Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire. Prior to landing How I Met Your Father, there was conversation around Duff returning to a Lizzie McGuire revival for Disney+, only for the project to fall apart due to creative differences about the series’ adult content. In a recent interview with Variety‘s Just for Variety podcast, Duff addressed the possibility of the Lizzie revival coming back, and confirmed that it’s neither “dead” or alive at the moment.

“I don’t think it’s dead, and I don’t think it’s alive,” Duff explained. “I think it’s just kind of sitting there.” 

Duff also revealed that the talks about a Lizzie continuation had been going on for about a decade, and that she had initially turned down the possibility. 

“I was like, ‘No, thank you,’” Duff recalls of first being approached. “And then one day, I was like, ‘Yup.’ There’s much love there.”

“There’s always struggle with something that’s so loved and important to so many people,” Duff added. “I just keep my heart and my mind open. I don’t think that How I Met Your Father would’ve come about if Lizzie had happened.”

In a previous social media post shortly after the Lizzie news initially broke, Duff said that she wanted a Lizzie reboot to be “honest and authentic” to who the character would be as an adult.

“I’ve been so honored to have the character of Lizzie in my life,” Duff’s post on social media read at the time. “She has made such a lasting impact on many, including myself. To see the fans’ loyalty and love for her, to this day, means so much to me. I know the efforts and conversations have been everywhere trying to make a reboot work but, sadly & despite everyone’s best efforts, it isn’t going to happen. I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. It’s what the character deserves. We can all take a moment to mourn the amazing woman she would have been and the adventures we would have taken with with her. I’m very sad, but I promise everyone tried the best and the stars just didn’t align. Hey now, this is what 2020s made of.”

How I Met Your Father is now available to stream on Hulu.