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Lizzie McGuire is one of the most popular shows from Disney Channel ever, so it really hurt when the planned revival series on Disney+ got canceled. Hilary Duff was set to reprise her beloved role as Lizzie, now living in New York in her 30s. The actress even filmed two episodes before Disney scrapped the show in 2020 because of behind-the-scenes creative differences. Even though Lizzie McGuire made a cameo in Hilary’s Hulu show, How I Met Your Father, she’s still disappointed that the revival series didn’t happen.
There’s been a lot of stories about what happened with the Lizzie McGuire revival. Hollywood Life has all the details about what went wrong and Hilary’s opinion on the matter.
Is the Lizzie McGuire Revival Happening?
As of now, there’s no plans to resume work on a Lizzie McGuire revival. The planned show was first announced at Disney’s D23 Expo in August 2019. It was revealed at the time that Hilary would return to the role that she played in two seasons of the show, that aired from 2001 to 2004, and The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which came out in 2003 and took place in Rome, Italy. Hilary was also going to be an executive producer on the project. The show’s creator, Terri Minsky, was set to return for the series that would follow Lizzie in her 30s as she lives her life in New York. At the time of the announcement, Hilary wrote on Instagram that she was “so excited” to return to the beloved role.
Production on the Lizzie McGuire revival started in Oct. 2019. Hilary was spotted out filming scenes in New York. Original cast members Adam Lamberg, Hallie Todd, Robert Carradine, and Jake Thomas were all confirmed to be returning as well. At the time, fans were so excited about the revival, and it seemed like smooth sailing ahead. Until it wasn’t.
Why Was the Lizzie McGuire Revival Canceled?
There seemed to be issues with the Lizzie McGuire revival from the beginning. In Jan. 2020, after the first two episodes were filmed, Terri stepped away from her role as showrunner of the revival because of creative differences and the overall vision for Lizzie. Filming was put on hold and behind-the-scenes tension continued. That February, Hilary urged Disney+ to allow the revival to move to Hulu so the show could have more mature storylines. She did so after Love, Victor, the Love, Simon sequel series, was moved from Disney+ to Hulu after reports that Disney+ believed its plot — about a high school student struggling with his sexual orientation — didn’t fit its family friendly standards.
Hilary Duff (Photo: Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock)
“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,” Hilary wrote in a statement on her Instagram account at the time. “I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limited the realities of a 30-year-old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating. It’s important to me that just as her experiences 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,” Hilary concluded.
In March 2020, The Hollywood Reporter released a report that offered insight as to what was going on behind-the-scenes with the revival. The lengthy piece claimed that the first episode script acknowledged cheating and intimacy as a central plot point — something Disney+ execs, who value its family and child friendly content, allegedly took issue with. Production on the show remained paused until December 2020, when Hilary confirmed the revival series was canceled.
Lalaine, Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg in ‘Lizzie McGuire’ (Photo: Walt Disney Enterprises / Everett Collection)
“I’ve been so honored to have the character of Lizzie in my life,” she wrote in an Instagram message. “She has made such a lasting impact on many, including myself. To see 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 and despite everyone’s best efforts, it isn’t going to happen. I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzle 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 her. I’m very sad, but I promise everyone tried their best and the stars just didn’t align. Hey no, this is what 2020s made of.”
In January 2024, more details came to light about the unreleased project. One of the writers for the show, Jonathan Hurwitz, revealed via TikTok several secret details about the show’s storyline. While working in New York City as an interior designer, Lizzie is dating a chef who is revealed to have been cheating on her with her friend. Upon learning the heartbreaking news, Lizzie flies back to her childhood home in California, where she was supposed to hook up with adult Ethan Craft.
@jonathanhurwitzReplying to @kujorg Consider the ☕️ spilled 🤭 #lizziemcguire #lizziemcguirereboot #hilaryduff #arianagrande #bangs #greenscreen
♬ original sound – jonathanhurwitz
Jonathan explained that, in episode 2, Lizzie reunited with her best buddy Gordo, but he was engaged and expecting a child with his fiancée. Lizzie then receives a text from Ethan, and the third episode — which was never filmed — began with Lizzie waking up in Ethan’s bed the next morning.
What Hilary Duff Has Said About the Lizzie McGuire Revival
Hilary has spoken out about the scrapped revival series since Disney made their big decision. In a May 2021 interview on The Jess Cagle Show, Hilary explained explained that she and Disney disagreed on Lizzie’s storyline for the show. “I think they are really trying to figure out what kind of content they want living on Disney+, and that doesn’t totally align with, like, where I see Lizzie right now,” she said. “I’m very protective of her and they’re very protective of her. It only makes sense to me to shoot a show where she’s acting like a 30-year-old in a modern world. And there was a lot of creative discussions where they were maybe thinking that’s not right. But I don’t know it’s going to be happening.”
Hilary told Cosmopolitan in Jan. 2022 some of Lizzie’s storyline that fans would’ve seen in the revival series. “My character was moving back home with her parents because she caught her soon-to-be fiancé cheating on her,” Hilary revealed. “She was falling flat on her face at the moment and being like, ‘I need to pivot because everything that I thought was wasn’t, and I’m turning 30. What the f***.’ ”
When she appeared on Watch What Happens Live in Jan. 2023, Hilary surprised fans when she said that she’s “optimistic” about another revival happening in the future. The character of Lizzie ended up making a cameo in a flashback scene on the March 7, 2023 episode of How I Met Your Father. Hilary talked about the Lizzie appearance in a June 2023 interview with Shape, and said, “I don’t think it was enough to satisfy the fact that project is shelved.”
