Hilary Duff Announces ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Reboot Is Canceled After Feud With Disney Comes To Head
When Disney Channel announced that they were bringing back the iconic show Lizzie McGuire, it was seriously a dream come
Lillie Gissen
When Disney Channel announced that they were bringing back the iconic show Lizzie McGuire, it was seriously a dream come true! But unfortunately, after months of feuding with the network, the main star of the show, Hilary Duff, has announced that the reboot has officially been canceled. She took to Instagram on Wednesday, December 16, to share the devastating news, and fans are pretty heartbroken about it.
“I’ve been so honored to have the character of Lizzie in my life. She has made such a lasting impact on many, including myself. To see the 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,” she wrote. “I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie 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 now, this is what 2020’s made of.”
View this post on Instagram
What Was The Show Going To Be About?
As fans know, the original show was about a young girl named Lizzie McGuire who, with the help of her best friends Gordo and Miranda, had to face the daily struggles of being a teenage girl, including mean girls, relationship drama, fashion crises, boys, her annoying little brother and so much more. It aired from January 2001 to February 2004, and it was definitely a big part of a lot of our childhoods.
As for the new show, it was going to follow Lizzie in her 30s! Back in August 2019, just days after Disney first announced that they were bringing the series back, Duff explained to Variety, “Lizzie has grown up — she’s older, she’s wiser, she has a much bigger shoe budge. She has her dream job, the perfect life right now working as an apprentice to a fancy New York City decorator, the perfect man who owns a fancy restaurant. She’s getting ready to celebrate her 30th birthday.”
“Entering your 30s is a really big deal,” the blonde beauty also told People Magazine. “I think it’s the right time to set back in and have her go along with you in your 30s and all the fun times, and all of the big monumental moments, and all of the challenges that you’re faced with. I just thought that there was an opportunity there for her to be grown up and for her to be there for women again. I can’t wait for her adventures, for her heartbreak, to see her goals and what she’s done. She has a few really cool quirks and her job is really cool but she hasn’t totally found her way and I think that’s part of her journey.”
Who Was Going To Star In It?
Besides Duff, the original show starred Jake Thomas, Adam Lamberg, LaLaine, Hallie Todd and Robert Carradine. So naturally, when news hit the web that it was getting a reboot, people started to wonder — who else was going to reprise their roles for the new show? Well guys, the network announced in November 2019 that Thomas, Todd and Carradine were all going to return to play the McGuire family.
View this post on Instagram
And a few days later, in a video posted on YouTube, the actress also revealed that Lamberg was going to reprise his role as Gordo!
“Gordo was an essential piece of the puzzle to what made the original Lizzie McGuire so authentic and beloved,” Duff said in a statement at the time. “I couldn’t imagine the series without him. I can’t wait for fans to see what he’s up to 15 years later and how he fits into Lizzie’s adult world.”
But their characters weren’t going to date in the new show. The actress told Vulture, “Ah! I feel like them not being together is what was so good. It’s that one person that you’re like, ‘Was he the one? Is it ever going to be?’ You’re always kind of wondering. We wanted it to hurt everyone a little bit, and it’ll continue to hurt.”
It was unclear if LaLaine was going to be involved, but the network had plans to include Lizzie’s iconic cartoon character!
“We can’t lose animated Lizzie! She’s the heart of it and the sass of it all. And she’s going to have the same outfit, which I’m obsessed with,” Duff told Variety.
Why Was Disney Feuding With Hilary Duff Over The Show?
Everyone was pretty excited when production of the show kicked off on October 29, 2019, and Duff was photographed filming scenes of it in New York City. But a few months later, Disney announced that they were putting production on hold and that the original creator, Terri Minsky, (who was originally involved in the reboot) was stepping away from the project.
“Fans have a sentimental attachment to Lizzie McGuire and high expectations for a new series,” the network said in a statement to Variety. “After filming two episodes, we concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show.”
Sources later revealed to the outlet that the reason they fired Minsky was because she wanted to create an “adult version” of the beloved tween show, but Disney wanted to keep it more kid-friendly.
“We paused production on Lizzie McGuire a few weeks ago to allow time for some creative re-development,” Disney said in another statement. “Our goal is to resume production and to tell an authentic story that connects to the millions who are emotionally invested in the character, and a new generation of viewers too.”
In February 2020, when news hit the web that another new show from the network, Love, Victor, was moving from Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, to Hulu instead, Duff explained that she wanted the same for Lizzie McGuire.
“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 explained on Instagram. “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.”
View this post on Instagram
Minsky also spoke out about it. She 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. 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.”
In April 2020, Duff explained that despite their disagreement over the show, she and Disney were in a “good place.”
“I feel like it’s our responsibility to honor the fanbase that grew up with her and where they are now. Disney has certain things that have to be met for their brand, and I totally understand that, and they totally understand my needs. So we’re in a really good place of being like, ‘Hey, we pressed pause, and we’re regrouping,’” she told PopSugar. “There’s been a lot of like creative meetings, obviously virtually. I think we’re on the right path, and I want it to happen more than anyone and they obviously feel the same way. [I’m] dedicated to making it work.”
In September 2020, however, they still hadn’t resolved anything, and Duff said that she wasn’t so sure they would ever reach an agreement. She dished to Cosmo UK, “There’s still no, like, ‘For sure, this is happening,’ but I think they’re pretty confident that we can make the show that I want, and that they want, for Disney+. I really want to do right by 30-year-olds who grew up with Lizzie and still have that 12-year-old voice inside of them, cheering them on but also making them feel like an idiot at times. But, you know, 30-year-olds have sexual experiences and drink alcohol so I think they’re just trying to wrap their heads around what that looks like, on that platform. I don’t want to do it unless I can speak to the people I care about, and [Lizzie] can be there for those people again.”
Are There Any Other Reboots We Have To Look Forward To?
OK, so the Lizzie McGuire reboot may not be happening, but there’s some other remakes that we have to look forward to! Yep, according to to Variety, the beloved Nickelodeon show iCarly is coming back, and OG stars Miranda Cosgrove, Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor are all going to be in the revival! The show will be on Paramount Plus (ViacomCBS’s new streaming service), and Jay Kogen (School of Rock, The Simpsons, Frasier) and Ali Schouten (Diary of a Future President, Champions, Merry Happy Whatever) have signed on to develop the new version of the series. It’s unfortunately still unclear who else will be involved, but no matter what, we know it’s going to be good.
HBO Max is also bringing Gossip Girl back! Set four years after the original show ended, the upcoming series will follow “a new group of Upper East Siders as they’re thrown under the microscope of Gossip Girl’s social surveillance.” The show’s original creators, Joshua Schwartz, Joshua Safran and Stephanie Savage, will all return to executive produce the reboot.
Newcomers Savannah Smith, Zion Moreno and Jordan Alexander, Emily Alyn Lind (who fans may recognize from Sacred Lies, Code Black, The Babysitter, Lights Out, Hidden, Revenge and more), Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star Whitney Peak, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionist alum Eli Brown, Peter Pan Live! actor Jason Gotay, Johnathan Fernandez (who previously starred in Lethal Weapons, Good Medicine, Catching Up, Scare Package, Porthole and tons more), Broadway star Adam Chanler-Berat, Doherty (who we all know from the Descendants movies), fashion icon Tavi Gevinson and Broadway actress Laura Benanti have all been cast in the new show.
Plus, NBCUniversal recently premiered their highly anticipated Saved By the Bell reboot. In it, Zack Morris is now the governor of California, and he “gets into hot water for closing too many low-income high schools and proposes they send the affected students to the highest performing schools in the state, including Bayside High. The influx of new students gives the overprivileged Bayside kids a much needed and hilarious dose of reality.”