Sorry, Millennials, we don’t mean to rub salt in your wounds, but one of the stars of Lizzie McGuire just peeled back the curtain on the failed reboot of the Hilary Duff-led Disney Channel series. In 2019, a sequel series was announced for the teen sitcom, but the project never came to fruition outside two episodes that had been filmed. Now, Jake Thomas, who played Lizzie’s younger brother, Matt, reveals to PEOPLE part of the reason the revival may have fallen apart.
He says, “I had heard rumblings for many years that they were trying to put something together, whether it was another movie or a series or something, but none of those rumors really ever held weight to me.” Thomas explains, “then suddenly, it just came together very quickly. And we filmed two episodes at the end of 2019, and unfortunately when we came back January-ish, things had started to fall apart.” Come January 2020, there was an understandable shift in world events that halted a lot of things. Thomas explains:
“Then 2020 happened and it was the wrong time, it was the wrong circumstances. I feel like sometimes it just kind of works out that way. That’s Hollywood. That’s the way I’ve always phrased it. It’s disappointing, but I was really looking forward to people getting to see the characters again. It was really exciting.”
What Would the ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Reboot Have Been About?
The Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire ran for two seasons from 2001 to 2004, with The Lizzie McGuire Movie premiering in 2003. The coming-of-age sitcom starred Duff as Lizzie McGuire with an animated version of herself performing Lizzie’s inner thoughts (predating Bitmojis in the best way possible). Duff said of the cancelled project, “I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. It’s what the character deserves. We can all take a moment to mourn the amazing woman she would have been and the adventures we would have taken with her. I’m very sad, but I promise everyone tried their best and the stars just didn’t align. Hey now, this is what 2020’s made of.”
A writer for the project took to TikTok, revealing some of the plot details. Jonathan Hurwit revealed that Gordo (Adam Lamberg), who Lizzie seemingly moves out of the friend zone, would have actually moved on with his life (it was middle school, no one is surprised). Lizzie’s other best friend, Miranda (LaLaine), would be revealed to be gay, with the audience getting to see “the woman that she’s in a relationship with.”
You can watch Lizzie McGuire now on Disney+.
- Release Date
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2001 – 2003
- Network
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Disney Channel
- Showrunner
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Terri Minsky
- Directors
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Savage Steve Holland, Mark Rosman, Anson Williams, Peter Montgomery, Brian K. Roberts, Neal Israel, Alan Myerson, Henry Chan, Jace Alexander, Kim Friedman, Larry Shaw, Oz Scott, Robert Carradine, Tim O’Donnell, Timothy Busfield
- Writers
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Alison Taylor, Amy Engelberg, Wendy Engelberg
Source: PEOPLE
