Hilary Duff teases casting 'surprises' in Lizzie McGuire Disney+ revival
Hey now, hey now, Lizzie McGuire is 13 going on 30 in a new Disney+ revival series. It was announced at the D23 Expo convention on Friday that Hilary Duff is returning to the teen sitcom that kickstarted her career for the new streaming service, and Duff herself revealed details about Lizzie’s new life, her job, her boyfriend, and how the new series will explore the titular character as she turns 30. But since then, the question on every Lizzie McGuire fan’s mind has been if any other original cast member would return for the revival series along with Duff.
Immediately after she took to the stage at the D23 Expo Disney+ panel, Duff stopped by the EW and PEOPLE video studio backstage to answer all our burning questions, starting with potential original cast returns. “The whole cast is such a big part of the show and we have a lot of surprises in store for viewers,” Duff teased. Hmmm, very cagey. She didn’t say no! That means we can still hold out hope that Lizzie’s BFF Miranda (Lalaine) and her BFF-turned-BF Gordo (Adam Lamberg) could appear in the new series, among others.
As for why now is the right time to bring Lizzie back, both for fans of the original series and a new generation of viewers, Duff smiled before revealing that “the conversation has gone on for a couple of years and the timing just didn’t seem right” then.
“Now Lizzie is turning 30,” she said. “She was everybody’s best friend. She was there for such pivotal moments in their preteen life. Entering your 30s is a really big deal. I think – and I think Disney agrees – but I think it’s just the right time for her to step back in and to have her go along with you in your 30s. All of the fun times and all of the big monumental moments that you’re faced with, I just thought that was such opportunity there for her to be grown up and for her to be there for women again.”
Although the revival hasn’t started filming yet, Duff has been working “really closely” with Terri Minsky, the original creator of the show who is returning as showrunner for the Disney+ series.
“I’m not going to lie, I’m a little intimidated,” Duff revealed. “I’m like, ‘Where is she in there?’ She is in there, she is me. When I was 13 shooting the show it was such a big part of me. I really just brought to the table myself and so I just have to tap into that and be really authentic. Our lives are very different. She’s not a mother, I’m already a mother, but I think that’s what’s exciting, to step into someone’s world that looks a little different than yours.”
Duff added that she “can’t wait for her adventures, her heartbreak and to see her goals and to see what she’s done.”
“There’s a lot of questions that need answering and a lot of new things on the horizon for her,” she teased. “She has a few really cool quirks and her job is really cool but she still hasn’t totally found her way and that’s going to be part of the journey.”
Check out the full video interview above now to see what else Duff had to share about the new revival series, how it could connect with her other 30-year-old millennial living in NYC TV comedy Younger, and more.
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