Hilary Duff Had Refused to Do a ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Reboot for Years—What Eventually Changed Her Mind?
Hilary Duff rose to fame in the early 2000s as the title character of the show Lizzie McGuire. The series was a big hit on Disney Channel, with many dedicated fans tuning in to watch Lizzie and her friends navigate life.
Now, after over 15 years since Lizzie McGuire went off the air, the show is coming back with a reboot. Duff has revealed that she was initially against taking part in a reboot. However, she eventually changed her mind. Find out why below.‘
Lizzie McGuire’ was on Disney Channel for two seasons
Lizzie McGuire premiered in January 2001. The show followed junior high school student Lizzie McGuire as she goes through the ups and downs of being a teenager.
Lizzie McGuire was highly successful. It was nominated for numerous awards and turned Duff into a household name.
In 2003, the show even had a movie called The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which followed Lizzie as she went on an adventure in Rome after graduating from junior high.
Lizzie McGuire came to an end in 2004, though the series was announced to be getting a reboot in August 2019.
Hilary Duff initially did not want to do a reboot but eventually changed her mind
It’s hard to do a Lizzie McGuire reboot without Duff, and for the longest time, she was against the idea of taking part in a reboot.
Duff recently shared with Cosmopolitan UK that she has been asked to do a reboot many times after the original series ended. Yet, she always refused.
“They asked me for years and years: ‘Let’s do a reboot, let’s do a reboot,’ and I was like, ‘No, no, no,’” Duff said.
The star revealed in the interview that she struggled for a long time with being typecast. Given her well-known image as Lizzie McGuire, it was difficult for her to branch out in Hollywood. It seems acting in a Lizzie McGuire reboot would only add to the problem, so Duff was not comfortable with it until recently.
“Finally, last year, I was like, ‘I feel ready,’” Duff revealed.“It just doesn’t annoy me any more when people refer to me as Lizzie McGuire or say that was my biggest role, because it paved the way for all the other roads I’ve been able to take.”
What do we know about the ‘Lizzie McGuire’ reboot so far?
The Lizzie McGuire reboot will follow an adult Lizzie now in her 30s. Lizzie now lives in New York City and works as an interior decorator. As Duff has shared, she hopes the show will be relatable to women her age like how the original Lizzie McGuire was for tweens and teens back then.
“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,” Duff told People. “I just thought that there was an opportunity there for her to be grown up and for her to be there for women again.”
The reboot was originally set to be released on Disney+, but production has since halted due to the show no longer aligning with Disney+’s PG image.
In February 2020, Duff took to Instagram to express her frustration and urged Hulu to take on Lizzie McGuire.
She wrote, “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… 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.”
So far, there has been no official report about when or if the show would begin production again.
