Lizzie McGuire Reboot Not Happening, Hilary Duff Responds

For many of us, Disney+ means more Star Wars, more Marvel, and more Pixar. But for a whole generation, it means an opportunity to revisit characters like Hilary Duff's Lizzie McGuire. The announced reboot is officially off after a bumpy road, though, according to Duff herself.

Duff made the announcement via text post on Instagram today.

Disney began production on the revival of the 2001 show shortly after Disney+ debuted in November 2019. The show was set to bring back not just Duff herself but series stars Jake Thomas, Hallie Todd, Robert Carradine, and Adam Lamberg. Series creator Terri Minsky was to return as showrunner, too.

Problems began in January when news broke that Minksy was fired from the project. Duff and Minsky wanted to look at McGuire from a more adult perspective, as Duff hints at in her latest post, while Disney was looking for something for younger audiences--despite the fact that the audience most likely to to watch would be in their mid-to-late 20s at the very youngest at this point.

Duff connected the show's struggles to another show originally aimed at Disney+. A television adaptation of the movie Love, Simon was initially set for company's primary streaming service, but renamed Love, Victor and shifted to Hulu as it was deemed not "family friendly" enough for Disney+. Duff quoted the headline in an Instagram story where she circled the words "family friendly" and wrote added text reading "Sounds familiar" to the post.

It seems that Disney has decided to cancel the reboot, despite two episodes having already been filmed to completion, rather than allow one of its shows to move to another service. Duff asks fans in her post to "take a moment to mourn the amazing woman [Lizzie McGuire] could've been and the adventures we would have taken with her," before acknowledging that "this is what 2020s [sic] made of."