Many of us have grown up watching Lizzie McGuire, starring Hilary Duff as the titular character. And when news that the show was getting a revival came out, there was legit excitement all around. However, after filming just two episodes of the sequel series, show creator Terri Minsky left the project due to creative differences.
Both Disney and Terri have spoken out about the issue.
“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 series,” a Disney spokesperson said.
And Terri told Variety, “I am so proud of the two episodes we did. Hilary has a grasp of Lizzie McGuire at 30 that needs to be seen,” she shared. “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.”
After months of trying to get the project back on track, much to fans’ detriment, the show was later officially scrapped. Hilary shared the sad news in December 2020.
“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 at the time.
In a recent interview with SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Hilary opened up about what really led to the demise of the Lizzie McGuire revival.
“That’s kind of been the battle,” she explained. “Like I don’t want to call it a battle cause everyone’s on very like loving terms between, you know, me and Disney, but that that’s been the thing. I think they’re 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, you know, and I’m like very protective of her and they’re very protective of her.”
She also shared that it was important to her for audiences to be able to relate with a 30-year-old Lizzie the same way they connected with her when they were growing up – by seeing a part of themselves in Lizzie.
“It only makes sense to me to shoot a show where she’s acting like a 30-year-old in a modern world,” Hilary added.
And as for Lizzie McGuire’s future, she shares, “There was a lot of creative discussions where maybe they were thinking that’s not quite right, and we were trying to make it work. And, you know, there’s always, like, lots of conversations, but I don’t think it’s going to be happening.”
Still, she’s glad she was able to relive being Lizzie and reconnect with her old co-stars, even if it was just for three weeks.
“It was lovely to relive that even for three weeks of my life, because, you know, there was a point in my life where I couldn’t stand Lizzie McGuire,” she says. “And I was like, ‘I don’t want to hear that name ever again.’ And now that I’m my age, I’m like, I love her. She’s, you know, this is where it all began for me. And she is me and I am her. And I brought what I could to that, which was very much just who I am inside. And so to tap into that again, even for a moment was really a great experience.”
“And to see a lot of the cast, the original cast, you know, we’re different humans now,” she notes. “It was just like, all love — and it still is. And you never, never say never in this business. I always say that. … Like, you never know what the day is going to bring. And that’s kind of what this industry is, which keeps it really exciting.”
Hilary has gone on to star in several projects since her Lizzie days. With her latest show Younger in its final season, she’s also set to star in the upcoming How I Met Your Mother spin-off, How I Met Your Father.
So, what was it about the project that attracted her the most? “I mean, the script was so good,” she said. “I literally called and I was like, ‘Please, yes, please have them pick me.’ I don’t want to give it all away and the script is definitely being changed a little bit. But it does tie in and, you know, hopefully we’ll have some fun guest appearances from the original cast.”
