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Hilary Duff has answered our prayers: a Lizzie McGuire reboot is officially happening. Duff, who’s been keeping this precious information secret for months, revealed the news on Instagram Friday night shortly after it was announced at the D23 Expo.
“SURPRISE!!! I’ve been trying to contain this excitement for a loooong time while this has been in the works!” she wrote. “I am beyond excited to be home again, back with my girl ♥️…and into her 30’s.”
The new series, which will be coming to Disney+, will follow Lizzie in New York City as she’s about to turn 30 and working as an apprentice for a fashion designer. Duff spoke to Entertainment Tonight about reviving the beloved character in a new phase of her life.
“It feels very surreal, to be honest. I’ve been living with this information for a few months now, so it’s been very hard to even contain my excitement,” she said. “She’s such a big part of me and my life, and now she’s 30, and I feel like I’m going to have to learn some of her quirky faces again. But I’m excited!”
While she kept most of the details under wraps, Duff did hint at the possibility that many of the original cast members will be returning for the reboot.
“The chances are high! I can’t tell you too much, but I think that people are going to be very surprised and excited.”
Duff, who is now a mother of two, said that her oldest child, 7-year-old Luca, isn’t exactly as excited as the rest of the world to see Lizzie coming back to the small screen.
“He got really into it and then he’s like, ‘I’m done,’” she told People. “I think he’s pretty fascinated to see me so young, not looking the same. He knows that’s his mom but he got over it fast. It’s pretty funny, he’s not there yet. I feel like I need to let him know that this was the show that started it all for me and what’s gonna happen when the second phase of that is happening.”
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However, those hoping for a continuation of the Lizzie-Gordo love story developed in 2003’s The Lizzie McGuire Movie should prepare themselves. During an appearance on Good Morning America, Duff said Lizzie “has a gorgeous fiancé who is this chef at this cool Soho restaurant.” She added that, at the revival’s start, “She has a cute little apartment in Brooklyn and everything is going her way and she’s celebrating her 30th birthday with all of her friends.”
But in a recent interview with Vulture, she clarified, “She’s not going to stay in Brooklyn too long, actually. That’s where she’s been, but she’ll be coming back to Los Angeles. She’s forced out of New York. She’s like, I can’t be here anymore.“
When asked if she was upset that Gordo (Adam Lamberg) wouldn’t end up with Lizzie, she replied, “You know what, I don’t know if I was as devastated by that,” adding, “I feel like them not being together is what was so good … it’s that one person that you’re like, Was he the one? Is it ever going to be? You’re always kind of wondering. We wanted it to hurt everyone a little bit, and it’ll continue to hurt. I really hope he’s going to be involved. We’ve been planning out the season and coming up with what everything looks like, and it’s so important for him to be there for part of it.”
Duff recently told E! that diving into McGuire as a 30-year-old without a partner or kids presented an interesting challenge. She told the outlet, “I think to myself, where can we go? What are the struggles of a 30-year-old right now? What are the pressures that life throws in front of a woman who is 30 and doesn’t have all the things yet? And for me, that’s Lizzie McGuire, she had those struggles in middle school where she didn’t have a place where she fits in and you know […] always on the struggle bus, but she’s also your best friend, and that’s exactly what I want to target and hit home again—is being there for girls in this time of their life.”
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She also reflected on what it was like to revisit the 2003 movie with her son Lucas and partner Matthew Koma. “I have been watching a lot of shows and I figured, I should probably watch the movie, too,” she said. “I haven’t seen it since the premiere night. That was a really crazy time in my life. I had had a lot of Lizzie McGuire. I shot 65 episodes in under 2 years and then did the movie and I was like, ‘I never want to see her again.’ And then, as I got older, I realized how much I love her, and how much that means to me, and how important of a character that was in my life.”