Lizzie McGuire isn't coming back after all. Star Hilary Duff announced via Instagram that following creative differences with Disney and the departure of the series' showrunner Terri Minsky, the planned Disney+ revival of Lizzie McGuire has been unceremoniously canceled.
"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," Duff wrote on Instagram. "I know the efforts and conversations have been everywhere trying to make a reboot work but, sadly & despite everyone's best efforts, it isn't going to happen. I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. It's what the character deserves."
Reportedly, the problems for the revival began back in January 2020. Production on the new Lizzie McGuire series had started in November of 2019, with Duff playing a 30-year-old Lizzie returning to her hometown of Los Angeles from Brooklyn. In addition to Duff returning as McGuire, original cast members Hallie Todd, Robert Carradine, and Jake Thomas were cast in the revival. It was also confirmed that Lizzie's primary gimmick, her fourth-wall-breaking animated persona, was on track for inclusion in the revival.+
The new series went on hiatus in January of 2020 after completing two episodes so Duff could go on her honeymoon. Shortly before she got back, Minsky was removed as Lizzie McGuire's showrunner. Reportedly, the dismissal was due to a clash between what Disney was looking for and what Minsky and Duff had made. Their new Lizzie McGuire was aimed squarely at young adults, and Disney had wanted another show for kids.
Since then, Duff has quietly been campaigning for Disney to move the Lizzie McGuire reboot from Disney+ to Hulu, in a similar arc to what happened with this year's teenage drama Love, Victor. With her post this week on Instagram, however, it seems that the revival is now officially dead in the water.
This does carry forward an unfortunate trend where Lizzie McGuire gets screwed over by its network, though. McGuire had an outsized impact on pop culture, so it's easy to forget that it only ever had two seasons and a movie in its original run. The show had been a big hit for Disney, spawning lucrative lines of merchandise and a Game Boy Color game, but it had also led to Duff receiving multiple offers for projects at other studios. The plan had been to transition McGuire into a high school setting, but Duff's popularity resulted in a pay dispute with Disney that sank the series.
Duff's next project is a new children's book, My Little Brave Girl, with illustrations by Kelsey Garrity-Riley. It's scheduled to be published via Random House in late March of 2021.
Source: Variety