Hilary Duff Says Lizzie McGuire Isn’t Engaged to Gordo in Disney+ Reboot
Hilary Duff is breaking the hearts of Lizzie McGuire fans with news about her character’s love life.
In an interview with Vulture, Duff, 31, confirmed that Lizzie’s childhood best friend-turned-love interest, Gordo (Adam Lamberg) will not be by her side as the now 30-year-old takes on New York City in the Disney+ reboot.
“You know what, I don’t know if I was as devastated by that,” the Younger actress confessed to the outlet about Gordo not being the person to whom Lizzie is engaged.
Duff explained that the pals’ platonic friendship is “what was so good” about the original Disney Channel series.
“It’s that one person that you’re like, ‘Was he the one? Is it ever going to be?'” she continued. “You’re always kind of wondering. We wanted it to hurt everyone a little bit, and it’ll continue to hurt. I really hope he’s going to be involved. We’ve been planning out the season and coming up with what everything looks like, and it’s so important for him to be there for part of it.”
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With the exception of Duff, the revival series has yet to confirm if any prior cast members — Lamberg included — will return.
The original series, which ran from 2001 to 2004 and was created by Terri Minsky, followed 13-year-old Lizzie, who dreamt of being popular in school, as her animated alter ego represented her true feelings.
The show was later made into a 2003 film, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, in which Lizzie went on a trip of a lifetime to Rome, Italy, following her 8th-grade graduation and got mistaken for an international pop star. Plus, her and Gordo finally kissed!
After the reboot was announced at the D23 Expo convention last month, Duff spoke to PEOPLE about her excitement at returning to the small screen as Lizzie 15 years later.
“The conversations have gone on for a couple of years and the timing just didn’t seem right and now Lizzie is turning 30,” Duff told PEOPLE. “For me, she was everybody’s best friend and she was there for us … entering your 30s is a really big deal.”
“I think it’s the right time to set back in and have her go along with you in your 30s and all the fun times, and all of the big monumental moments, and all of the challenges that you’re faced with,” she continued.
“I just thought that there was an opportunity there for her to be grown up and for her to be there for women again,” Duff added.
Despite playing Lizzie for years, Duff said she was nervous about revisiting the beloved character and getting back into her headspace.
“I’m not gonna lie: I’m a little intimidated,” she admitted to PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘Where is she in there?’ She is in there; she is me. When I was 13, it was such a big part of me … I just have to tap into that and be very authentic to that.”
“Our lives are very different — she’s not a mother, I am already a mother — but I think that’s what’s exciting, to step into someone else’s world whose a little bit different than your own, but I can’t wait,” Duff explained
“I can’t wait for her adventures, for her heartbreak, to see her goals and what she’s done,” she added.
Lalaine, Jake Thomas, Halle Todd and Robert Carradine also starred in the original Disney Channel series.
