For those of us born in the 90s, we may have spent some of our childhood watching Hilary Duff in the Lizzie McGuire series. Much to fans’ delight a reboot was said to be on the way back in 2019 over on Disney Plus. However, this has yet to materialize. Some time has passed but Duff is still optimistic that we haven’t seen the last of Lizzie yet.
The series, which ran from 2001 to 2004 over on the Disney channel, followed awkward Lizzie as she figured out her teenage years, and even included a movie that saw Lizzie and her classmates on a trip to Rome, yes Spider-Man, Lizzie did it before you. Now Duff is all grown up, fans want to catch up with her and her animated inner voice, to see what the character has been getting up to.
The revival was announced back in August of 2019, with both Duff and the original showrunner, Terri Minsky, set to return to their roles. Many of the original cast were also said to be on board and the show even started production in association with the Disney Channel, that is until Minsky departed from the project, putting the entire project on hiatus.
Another sticking point was that Duff wanted her character to reflect who she is now, a woman in her 30s, though apparently, Disney wanted to keep it a little more family-friendly than perhaps Duff had in mind. Seen as Lizzie McGuire’s fans are now all grown up, and the actress is all grown up, why not reflect that?
Despite the long pause that the show has been put on, Duff appeared optimistic whilst talking to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live. When asked if she would return to the role if Disney were to agree and if “it lived up to her vision” she answered, “of course.” She was very careful in her response to what had happened in order to put the revival on hold, carefully selecting her words she said,
“Disney+ was very new and I think they were figuring out their… and we were figuring out our… and I am optimistic.”
What Duff would also hope for, is that if Disney Plus is not going to go ahead and commit to the revival, but also allow the show to move to a different home so that at least Lizzie’s story can be told.
This was the case for Love, Victor, the spin-off series to the film Love, Simon which was originally planned to be released on Disney Plus but was later moved across to Hulu in 2020 where it has had two seasons and will be ending on its third.
We are sure fans would be thrilled to see Lizzie return to their screens no matter what channel it is on, so let’s hope that parent channel Disney can work something out, even if it means letting go of its image of the young family-friendly Lizzie and letting her grow up somewhere else. It’s always hard to admit when your kids are ready to fly the nest though.
