People have been dreaming of a Lizzie McGuire revival almost since the show ended, and in recent years it’s begun to seem like a possibility. Hilary Duff has said she’s on board, and old shows are getting new reboots every other day. But it still hasn’t happened. Don’t give up hope! Duff hasn’t yet.
On a recent episode of Watch What Happens Live, she told host Andy Cohen that she would “of course” still be down to do a new take on the show. Cohen wanted to know why a previous attempt at Disney+ failed a while ago, and Duff had a diplomatic response.
“Disney+ was very new, you know,” she said. “And I think they were like figuring out their — and we were figuring out our — and like, and so — I am optimistic.”
When the first attempt was axed in 2020, Duff was a bit less peppy about the possibilities.
“I know 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 at the time 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. 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.”
The actress really cares about her “vision” of what the new McGuire would be, since it is a character very close to her heart. When things didn’t work out with Disney+, she reached out to Hulu to request they pick up the show instead to avoid “limiting the realities for a 30-year-old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating.”
That’s definitely a version of Lizzie McGuire a lot of people would like to see, like all the 30-year-old fans who grew up with Lizzie to begin with.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.
