Way back before Disney+ launched at the D23 Expo in 2019, a brand new revival of the classic Disney Channel series, “Lizzie McGuire,” was announced, which would see Hilary Duff return to play the title role.

The series was going to pick up when Lizzie McGuire was just about to turn 30. She seemingly has it all – her dream job as an assistant to a fancy New York City decorator, her dream guy and a picturesque Brooklyn apartment – but things aren’t always as they seem. With a little help from her friends, her loving family and her 13-year-old alter-ego in animated form, Lizzie navigates the ups and downs of adulthood.

In late 2019, the first two episodes of the new show were filmed in New York, but filming was halted when the original “Lizzie McGuire” series creator, Terri Minsky, left the project due to creative differences. Filming was put on hold, and the pandemic hit, causing more delays and the project was eventually cancelled.

Disney even released a few seconds of footage from the series in a highlights video to promote the new originals that would be released in 2020, but sadly, they never got released.

Over the past few years, Hilary Duff has been very vocal publically about her frustrations with the creative decisions being made at Disney since the creators wanted to make a more mature show, reflecting that Lizzie would be in her thirties, while Disney wanted something more inline with the original series.

Recently, Jonathan Hurwitz, one of the revival’s writers, shared some details on TikTok about some of the storylines that the show would have covered.

@jonathanhurwitz

Cheating boyfriends, gay roommates, high school crushes, oh my! #lizziemcguire #lizziemcguirereboot #hilaryduff #fyp #foryou

♬ original sound – jonathanhurwitz

In the first episode, Lizzie is living in New York City and finds out her chef boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend, which prompts her to move back to her childhood home in California, where the animated version of Lizzie is waiting for her.

It was also revealed in the second episode that Lizzie would reconnect with her best friend Gordo, who is now happily engaged and about to become a father. At the end of the second episode, Lizzie gets a message from her childhood crush, Ethan. Jonathan also revealed:

“Episode 3 wasn’t filmed, but there was a script for it. Lizzie wakes up in Ethan’s bed, in his water polo t-shirt. Animated Lizzie pops up and she has this little checklist, like a to-do list, and Ethan is on the list and she checks it off.

I think she says something like, ‘I checked that box –dramatic pause– twice.’ So if I had to guess, I saw another comment about certain storylines [about] why Disney wasn’t comfortable with it, my guess was… that moment was probably one of them.”

Disney also had some other issues with the first two episodes, which included a gay roommate who was based on Jonathan, plus it also contained some swear words.

This story lines up with what seems to be a rift between the Disney executives and the creatives, who wanted two very different shows. Hilary Duff wanted a more adult version to reflect the real life of the character, while Disney wanted it as family-friendly as possible since its plans for Disney+ were to keep the platform focused on family content.

Jonathan also revealed that the Disney executives had been given pitches on what episodes four to eight were about, but they never saw the scripts as they weren’t ready. 

Unfortunately, it does seem that the creatives and Disney had very different views on what the show was going to be.  It seems Disney wanted something more like “Raven’s Home”, which was just a follow-on to the original “That’s So Raven”, while the creatives wanted something more in line with “How I Met Your Father”.  

It does sound like the project was being rushed through production without much idea of what the show was going to be, especially since two episodes were filmed. 

Many fans of the original have been upset that the revival was announced and never came to be, though hopefully, maybe in the future, this could happen, but I doubt the revival version would have fitted with a Disney Channel franchise.  Especially if a child had just finished watching the original series and then went on to watch the first episode of this new season, the change in tone would have been very drastic, and it’s understandable why this spooked Disney executives.

While we never got the “Lizzie McGuire” revival, you can catch the original series on Disney+ now.

Would you have liked to have seen the “Lizzie McGuire” revival?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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