Hilary Duff Never Really Left Disney Despite the ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Revival Cancelation
Hilary Duff announced she was getting back together with Disney in 2019. Though the Lizzie McGuire Disney+ revival was canceled before it could get off the ground, the actor isn’t exactly done with House of Mouse just yet. She’s still working under the Disney umbrella. Let’s look back at some of her roles and where Duff is currently.
Hilary Duff stars in ‘How I Met Your Father’ on Hulu
In 2021, Duff revealed she took on the role of Sophie, the new lead character for the spinoff to How I Met Your Mother. The announcement came months after the news her return to her first iconic role as Lizzie McGuire wouldn’t occur.
Duff plays Sophie, who looks for her soulmate while working as a photographer in New York City. The older version of Sophie, who narrates to her child how she met their father, is played by Kim Cattrall. Several men could be the potential father, which adds an element of intrigue to the show, keeping viewers eager to learn who Sophie had a child with.
How I Met Your Father airs on Hulu, a streaming service majority-owned by Disney. So even though Duff didn’t return to her origins on the Disney Channel, she’s still affiliated via her new series.
The ‘Lizzie McGuire’ revival fell through
Duff played the titular character in Lizzie McGuire from 2001 to 2004. She even starred in a feature film, The Lizzie McGuire Movie. The comedy ended as they graduated from junior high rather than showing audiences Lizzie and her friends moving on to high school. But the show remained a staple among its millennial viewership.
Naturally, when Duff announced her return to the Lizzie McGuire franchise, former fans were beyond ecstatic. Rather than a reboot, the actor was set to portray her beloved character as an adult about to turn 30. The plot featured her moving home to her family in California after a breakup.
With Lizzie McGuire creator Terri Minsky on board, fans felt confident in the project. But her vision and what Disney+ was willing to show on the platform weren’t the same, so Minsky walked away. And Duff stood firmly on the creator’s side rather than the company’s.
“I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old’s journey to under the ceiling of a PG rating,” the actor wrote in a February 2020 Instagram post. She suggested Disney “move the show to Hulu,” but this never came to light.
Hilary Duff’s other Disney roles
While Lizzie McGuire was undoubtedly Hilary Duff’s most well-known Disney role, it wasn’t her only one. She played Kelly Collins in the Disney Channel Original Movie Cadet Kelly. In the film, Kelly begins attending military school, much to her dismay. She faces off against Captain Jennifer Stone (Christy Carlson Romano). Nearly 20 years later, Duff told Cosmopolitan she’d learned from her HIMYF co-star that some considered the film “a moment in the queer community.”
Duff also played a dual role in The Lizzie McGuire Movie. She portrayed Isabella Parigi, an Italian pop star who looks just like Lizzie. And in 2010, she starred in Beauty & the Briefcase, a TV rom-com which aired on what was then called ABC Family — also a Disney subsidiary.
