Hilary Duff Doesn't Want The 'Lizzie McGuire' Reboot

Even though fans are excited about the recently announced “Lizzie McGuire” reboot, starring none other than Hilary Duff herself, the actress admittedly did not want to return at first. The reason is unclear.

Recently, at the D23 Expo, it was reported that Hilary Duff will reprise the role that propelled her to stardom in the first place, Lizzie McGuire. In this revival series, Duff will be returning as 30-year-old Lizzie.

Former series writer and “Lizzie McGuire” executive story editor, Nina Bargiel, however, revealed that Duff did not immediately think a reboot was a good idea and “didn’t want to return.”

In a lengthy Twitter thread, the editor said that she will not be involved in the revivals series at all, even if she was the genius behind 17 episodes of the original show that ran for three years from 2001 to 2004.

The writer also revealed that the reboot was supped to be shown on Freeform, still revolving around high school. All this because Duff did not want to return for the show.

“Hilary had said she didn’t want to return to Lizzie so we worked on it as a high school reboot,” Bargiel shared, after being approached by executive producer Stan Rogow to work on the said project. And yet, the actress suddenly had a change of heart and expressed an interest to revisit the iconic blonde teen character in a 2018 interview with Buzzfeed. As a result, Bargiel felt compelled to halt her Freeform project and Rogow entered into a contact with Disney.

“The Freeform movie was put on hold, because of HELLO? Of course, we want to see Hilary back as Lizzie! I was told to hang tight as the deal was made,” Bargiel tweeted. “I waited... and waited... and then in February (or March?) of this year, I was told that I was no longer going to be involved.”

There was a natural sadness in her post. She added that it was a privilege to be one of the writers of the original show and then ultimately realizing that she would not be part of the reboot.

Her revelation did not include why Duff did not like to be part of the reboot at first and then changed her mind, causing her own Freeform project to go bust, in part. Nevertheless, it can be noted that Duff has expressed her love for the character consistently, even though she did not think a reboot will happen or should happen.

“I mean I love her so much,” Duff told ET. “I think she was so important to girls at an important time in their life. If she could be important to them again at this age, I think that would be amazing.”