The 'Lizzie McGuire' Reboot Is No Longer Happening
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Lizzie McGuire was supposed to come back just when we needed her. Hilary Duff was set to reprise her famous Disney Channel role for a reboot on Disney+, even with other original cast members involved. And although production seemed to be moving along in 2019, things soon got rocky at the start of the new year. Production hit a snag after some creative differences between Disney and the Lizzie team, which includes Duff and original showrunner Terri Minsky, and then filming went on hiatus. Several months later, after attempts to save the show, Duff confirmed our worst fear: the Lizzie reboot would no longer move forward.
Here's what you need to know.
Hilary Duff says it's no longer moving forward.
After months of trying to figure out how to bring Lizzie back to the screen, Duff announced to fans that the reboot of her beloved Disney show would no longer happening. "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," she wrote on Instagram. "I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. It's what the character deserves."
Read her full message below.
The reboot was set to follow Lizzie into her 30s.
At Disney's D23 Expo in August 2019, it was revealed that Duff would be returning to play the titular character in a Lizzie McGuire reboot on Disney+. It was also announced that the show's creator, Terri Minsky, would be returning, and that the series would follow Lizzie, now in her thirties and living in New York.
At the D23 Expo, Duff explained (per Variety), "Lizzie has also grown up, she's older, she's wiser, she has a much bigger shoe budget." She continued, "She has her dream job, the perfect life right now working as an apprentice to a fancy New York City decorator."
Duff excitedly confirmed the reboot at the time on Instagram and wrote, "SURPRISE!!! I’ve been trying to contain this excitement for a loooong time while this has been in the works! I am beyond excited to be home again, back with my girl ♥️...and into her 30s #bringbackbutterflyclips."
The show was originally expected to air in 2020.
While Disney+ is officially launched on November 12, 2019 in the United States, the Lizzie McGuire reboot wasn't one of the service's initial offerings. The streaming service features an extensive back catalogue of Disney titles, along with new movies and shows like the live-action Lady and the Tramp. Subscription will set you back $6.99 a month, and fans were expecting Lizzie McGuire to be released sometime in 2020.
A trailer released by Disney+ previewing what's coming in 2020 also included a first clip of the reboot. In it, Hilary Duff peeks into a car window as her iconic character and says with a smile, "Hi! It's me."
Production started in October 2019.
Duff teased fans with photos from the set. She shared a photo of her incredible hair and makeup during filming.
The Younger star also adorably reunited with her McGuire family, and wrote on Instagram, "we are standing in what will soon be the McGuire living room. What’s up fam. We doin this #lizziemcguire #disneyplus."
As confirmed by Duff's Instagram post, Hallie Todd, Robert Carradine, and Jake Thomas had returned to portray Lizzie's mom, dad, and brother.
Duff was also photographed in costume carrying a giant cuddly llama around New York City.
Lizzie was set to have a new love interest.
While fans might have been hoping that Lizzie ended up David "Gordo" Gordon (Adam Lamberg), Duff revealed to Vulture that the reboot would go in a different direction. She explained, "Ah! I feel like them not being together is what was so good."
She continued, "It’s that one person that you’re like, Was he the one? Is it ever going to be? 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.”
Instead, Duff told E! News, "She has an awesome boyfriend and they've been together for two years so everything's looking pretty promising for her."
There was hope for Ethan Craft.
In an interview with E! News, Duff said of actor Clayton Snyder, who plays Ethan Craft, "He is hot. He's very hot." Hinting that he might be back for the reboot, the actress explained, "I'm pretty sure there's going to be, there's going to be a thing."
As for where else the reboot might've gone, the A Cinderella Story star told E!, "I have said this before, but for me coming back when she's 30 and she's not in a marriage and she's not having a baby and she's not doing all the things that I have already done in my life, that story is really exciting for me."
Gordo came back.
Despite Duff's conversation with Vulture, the actress previously announced in a video with Disney that Lizzie's best friend-turned-love interest Gordo will return in the reboot. (Will he go by his full name David Gordon as an adult?)
Actor Adam Lamberg was meant to return to reprise his role. "This is what dreams are made of," he says in the clip with Duff. Perfection.
"Gordo was an essential piece of the puzzle to what made the original 'Lizzie McGuire' so authentic and beloved," Duff said in a press release, per ABC. "I couldn't imagine the series without him. I can't wait for fans to see what he's up to 15 years later and how he fits into Lizzie's adult world."
The show was on hiatus after a showrunner shake-up.
Terri Minsky, who created the original Lizzie McGuire series and signed on to spearhead the reboot, stepped down from her post. Her successor wasn't revealed.
A Disney spokesperson told Variety in a statement, Fans have a sentimental attachment to Lizzie McGuire and high expectations for a new series. 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."
Variety reported over a month later that Minsky was ousted after just two episodes of the reboot were completed. The outlet added that Duff learned of Minsky's ousting shortly after she returned from her honeymoon when Variety broke the news, not from Disney. Duff declined to comment.
Duff hinted that the show wasn't "family friendly" enough for Disney.
In late February, it was reported that the Love, Victor series slated for Disney+—which revolves around a gay teen and is a spinoff of the Love, Simon movie—was shifted over to Hulu because it wasn't "family friendly" enough for the original platform. A similar thing happened to High Fidelity starring Zoë Kravitz.
Hilary Duff responded to the news by hinting that the same could be happening to the Lizzie McGuire reboot, following Terri Minsky's exit from the project. Duff shared a screen grab of the Love, Victor headline on her Instagram Story and commented, "Sounds familiar .." Disney has yet to respond.
Duff elaborated on her comment a few days later on Instagram. The actress wrote, "Was incredibly excited to launch 'Lizzie' on D+ and my passion remains! However, 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 continued, "It's important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen/teenager 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."
Minsky explained her exit in an interview with Variety, further fueling the idea that her grown-up version of Lizzie didn't work with Disney's vision. "I am so proud of the two episodes we did," she told the outlet. “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. I felt like I wanted to do a show that was worthy of that kind of devotion."
Sources told Variety that she wasn't happy with Minsky's firing. "The two women wanted to do a more adult version of Lizzie for the revival, while Disney wants a show that would appeal to kids and families, something more akin to the original series," the site reported.
The first episode reportedly involved sex and cheating.
In a feature about Disney Plus, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that it obtained the script for the Lizzie McGuire reboot. The first episode, it reports, "acknowledges the existence of sex with cheating as a central plot point."
Disney hasn't confirmed or denied whether this storyline is true, or whether such details are what triggered creative differences between Minsky and the company. However, a spokesperson from the brand previously said, regarding the hiatus, "Our goal is to resume production and to tell an authentic story that connects to the millions who are emotionally invested in the character, and a new generation of viewers too."
At the time, not all hope was lost. Duff told People in an interview published on April 6, "There’s still conversations going on in hopes that we can find a way to meet in the middle and both bend a little bit. I understand that they have to protect their brand and there’s pretty strict guidelines on what that looks like.”
She added that she wanted to make sure she still does Lizzie right. “I just have to make sure it’s the right move for me and that I feel like I’m honoring her and the character, and that it will be relatable to the people who grew up with her because those are the people I really want to speak to,” Duff continued.
The cast reunited for a table read during quarantine.
Despite there being no news on the status of the Lizzie reboot, the cast reunited remotely via Zoom call to keep us entertained during our time indoors. The gang—including Duff, Jake Thomas (Lizzie's brother, Matt), Lalaine (Miranda), Adam Lamberg (Gordo), Robert Carradine (Lizzie's dad), Hallie Todd (Lizzie's mom), and Ashlie Brillault (mean girl Kate)—gathered to read the script for "Between a Rock and a Bra Place," an iconic episode that aired 19 years ago.
Hulu reportedly didn't have any conversations about Lizzie.
In a Vanity Fair report published June 22, Hulu's head of original content, Craig Erwich, revealed that there have not been any discussions to bring Lizzie McGuire to Hulu as Hilary Duff had requested as a possible solution to including more adult content in the reboot.
"I appreciate her fandom," Erwich said of Duff's plea. "We have not had any conversations with Hilary Duff around her show."
It's unclear if such conversations could still happen in the future, but we sure hope they can.
Duff was hopeful that the show would work out.
"We are very much still in conversation with them a couple of times a week, which is really nice," the actress told E! News in July 2020. She added that she has "high hopes that we are going to make it work."
Duff acknowledges that she has "a responsibility to [Lizzie], honoring her and the fanbase that grew up with her. ... We kind of put her on pause, and had to go back to the drawing board, but I feel optimistic that it will happen."
At the time, Duff added that "a lot of writing is happening," She added then, "We are being told to have patience, which is good, so I feel optimistic."
This story has been updated.
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