Hilary Duff isn't ready to say that the Lizzie McGuire reboot is "So Yesterday."
While the actress seemed frustrated by the reboot's cancellation in December 2020, she seems more optimistic about its prospects now that a year has gone by. "It's not dead and it's not alive," she explained on the In Her Shoes Podcast. "I think there's always possibility there. And like, if she's 40, I don't think people care. It's always going to be somewhat interesting to people to see where she ended up."
But before people start singing about how this is what dreams are made of, she noted, "I don't really love to talk about this because the Internet seems to explode whenever Lizzie stuff is brought up."
Uh, guilty as charged. Lizzie fans have been avidly following this story since Disney first announced they would be reviving the series in August 2019. At the time, Hilary was ecstatic to bring Lizzie back, telling E! News, "She was there for everyone in their pre-teens. She was their best friend, and I would love to try to embody that for her in her 30s and going through those challenges."
However, those story lines were seemingly too mature for Disney+ to stomach, as reports emerged in early 2020 that the streaming platform felt the revival wasn't family-friendly enough. Hilary would later confirm these rumors on Instagram, writing in a statement addressed to Disney, "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."
She begged for the series to stream on Hulu, as Disney permitted for the Love, Simon-inspired series Love, Victor, citing its "adult" content.
But by December of that year, Hilary sadly announced that "despite everyone's best efforts, it isn't going to happen."
Since then, the mom of three has offered explanation after explanation for the cancellation and this time is no different. "I work so hard in my career, and I have such a busy life at home with my kids," she shared. "Unless I'm being totally fulfilled, I really don't want to be locked into something that isn't making me happy."
The actress added that it took so long for her to even consider a reboot that "when I finally was ready to do it, I was like the only way we do this is an honest interpretation of what her life would look like right now because that's what made the show so special is that it was an honest representation of a 13, 14, 15-year-old girl's life."
So, while Lizzie is still waiting in the wings, Hilary is taking advantage of other opportunities, like her role as Sophia in Hulu's How I Met Your Father. The How I Met Your Mother spinoff is in its debut season and has already been renewed for a second season, which will have 20 new episodes. "The lives of these characters, as portrayed by the immensely talented cast led by Hilary Duff, are just starting to unfold," Jordan Helman, Head of Scripted Content at Hulu Originals, previously said in a statement, "and we're thrilled to bring more of this group's journey to our viewers with a supersized second season."
How I Met Your Father is streaming now on Hulu.