'The Lizzie McGuire' Reboot is no longer happening. Here's why.
Fans were ecstatic when a Lizzie McGuire reboot got announced a few years ago. Hilary Duff was supposed to reprise her famous Disney Channel role, and the reboot would release on Disney+. Even cooler was that the original cast members of the show will also get involved. The reboot finally entered production in 2019, but then things soon turned south. Filming halted due to creative differences between Disney and the Lizzie McGuire team, including Duff and original showrunner Terri Minsky. The team still tried to work out their differences and for several months, we received news of their attempts to save the show. However, by December 2020, Duff confirmed that the reboot would no longer happen! Continue reading to know more.
Duff shocked fans with an announcement of Lizzie McGuire Reboot's cancelation months after they tried figuring out how to bring the character back to the screen.
"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," Duff 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."
Duff recently told Women's Health Magazine: “She had to be 30 years old doing 30-year-old things. She didn’t need to be doing bong rips and having one-night stands all the time, but it had to be authentic. I think they got spooked.”
The actress added that everyone tried their best, but "the stars just didn't align."
The initial plan for the reboot is to follow Lizzie in her 30s in New York.
"Lizzie has also grown up, she's older, she's wiser, she has a much bigger shoe budget," Duff explained during Disney's D23 Expo in August 2019.
"She has her dream job, the perfect life right now working as an apprentice to a fancy New York City decorator."
Of course, we can easily deduce that things won't remain perfect for long. Unfortunately, we will no longer see the different challenges that an adult Lizzie was supposed to overcome now that the reboot got canceled.
Lizzie was also supposed to have a new love interest. Duff confirmed that Lizzie and David "Gordo" Gordon (Adam Lamberg) did not end up together in the reboot.
She told Vulture, "Ah! I feel like them not being together is what was so good."
Duff added that Lizzie "has an awesome boyfriend and they've been together for two years so everything's looking pretty promising for her."
Nonetheless, Gordo was still expected to return for the reboot, although it was unclear how he would fit into Lizzie's new world.
Duff shared some set photos announcing the first day of filming for the reboot.
She shared more set photos throughout the production, and fans were eagerly looking forward to the show. Sadly, in December 2020, she posted an announcement about its official cancelation.
Duff and Minsky wanted a more adult version of Lizzie, but Disney+, being a family-friendly brand, wants to tone it down.
In late February, Love, Victor, a series revolving around a gay teen, got transferred to Hulu, because is not "family-friendly" enough for Disney. Duff posted a screengrab of the news on her Instagram story and wrote, "Sounds familiar .."
A few days later, the actress wrote on Instagram:
"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."
She 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 had the same sentiments. The director was fired from her job just after completing two episodes, Variety reports.
In an interview with Variety, Minsky said: "I am so proud of the two episodes we did. 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."
As of this update, the reboot is still not moving forward. Are you among the Lizzie McGuire fans that got upset with the cancelation, too.
During her appearance on Watch What Happens Live, the host Andy Cohen asked Duff whether she would still consider doing the Lizzie McGuire revival if it lived up to her vision. To this, she responded positively, saying, "Of course."
When Cohen probed further about the main sticking point that led to the show not getting picked up, Duff hesitated to give a direct answer. She mentioned that Disney+ was relatively new at the time, and both Disney and the team behind the Lizzie McGuire revival were in the process of figuring out their respective aspects. Despite any challenges, Duff expressed optimism about the project.
Watch the moment in the video provided below.
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This article was reviewed and is up to date as of August 3rd, 2023.
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