With the announcement of the Disney+ streaming service came the announcement that there would be a Lizzie McGuire revival series with the former Disney Channel star, Hilary Duff, reprising her role as the title character.
The series will take place 15 years after the original ended just as Lizzie is about to turn 30. The whole McGuire family is set to return, as well as Adam Lamberg’s Gordo. And that cartoon Lizzie in her head? Still there, and still perpetually 13 years old.
Hilary Duff’s sister, Haylie, who starred alongside her in 2006’s Material Girls and sung the vocals for pop star lookalike Isabella Parigi in the Lizzie McGuire Movie finale will not be a part of the new Disney+ series, but is happy for her sister.
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“I’m excited for it!” she said. “I don’t know that much about it, but I’m excited for it. I think it’s going to be really cute and fun and I’m happy for her that she’s doing that.”
The two Duff sisters are both moms now and are just as supportive of each other’s parenting styles as they are of each other’s film and television projects.
“A lot of our parenting is in line with each other,” Haylie commented, “but there’s so much advice from everyone coming to you all the time when you’re a parent, that both of us have taken the approach of like, we’re not going to push our way onto each other, e’re just going to be there to support each other, because everyone wants to feel like they’re making the best decisions for their family.”
She added that she thinks “the support of each other’s decisions is the best way to really be there for one another.”
When it comes to the Lizzie McGuire revival, Disney is still hard at work making sure that the series lives up to the standards of fans who grew up with Lizzie.
Terri Minsky, creator of the original Disney Channel show and writer for over sixty episodes, has recently stepped away from her role as showrunner for the series and production placed on hiatus while they find a replacement.
“After filming two episodes, we concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show,” one Disney spokesperson said.
The original Lizzie McGuire series ran for two seasons from 2001 to 2004 and included a theatrically released film titled The Lizzie McGuire Movie in 2003. The show established Hilary Duff as a household name across America, centering on her character’s struggle to navigate middle school as a thirteen-year-old girl.
The Disney+ revival was initially announced by Duff herself at the Disney fan “D23 Expo” event in August of last year.