A Lizzie McGuire revival at Disney+ isn’t going forward, star Hilary Duff said Wednesday.
Duff announced the project’s end in an Instagram post, writing that “the stars just didn’t align” for the project.
“I know the 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,” Duff wrote.
“Lizzie McGuire fans have high expectations for any new stories,” Disney said in a statement. “Unless and until we are confident we can meet those expectations, we’ve decided to hold off and today, we informed the cast’s representatives that we are not moving forward with the planned series.”
The revival was announced in August 2019, a few months ahead of the launch of Disney+. Duff was to have played a grown-up version of the character from the 2001-04 Disney Channel series that helped launch her career. Adam Lamberg, Hallie Todd, Robert Carradine and Jake Thomas were set to reprise their roles as well.
Series creator Terri Minsky was also attached to the revival, but she exited the series in January after two episodes had been filmed. “We concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show,” a Disney spokesperson said at the time.
Following Minsky’s departure, Disney+ said it would search for a new showrunner, but none was ever announced. Duff and Minsky both lobbied for the show to reflect the adult Lizzie’s life in full and lobbied to move the series to Hulu (similar to what Disney did with Love, Victor, which was initially slated for Disney+).
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter