In 2019, Disney announced that it was rebooting the hit teen series Lizzie McGuire, with the original cast returning. The series, which would’ve focused on an adult version of the lead character’s life, was cancelled in 2022 after just two episodes had been filmed.
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Now, Jonathan Hurwitz, a writer on the canceled reboot has opened up about the “adult” storylines the series would’ve covered, leading to Disney’s discomfort and its eventual cancellation.
Taking to TikTok, Hurwitz revealed details of the first two episodes – which had already been filmed – and the plot for the third episode, which had been written but was rejected. According to Hurwitz, the first episode saw McGuire (Hilary Duff) living in New York as an interior designer. She finds out that her chef boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend, and moves back to her childhood home in California, where she finds the animated Lizzie waiting for her.
Replying to @kujorg Consider the spilled #lizziemcguire #lizziemcguirereboot #hilaryduff #arianagrande #bangs #greenscreen
♬ original sound – jonathanhurwitz
In episode two, the show would have answered a long-running question in the Lizzie McGuire fanbase: will Lizzie and her childhood best friend Gordo ever get together? The answer here would’ve been a definitive no, per Hurwitz.
Episode two would have seen Lizzie and Gordo reunite, only for it to be revealed that Gordo was engaged and expecting a baby. The end of the episode would have involved Lizzie receiving a text message from her former highschool crush, Ethan Craft.
According to Hurwitz, the beginning of episode three was what like made Disney uncomfortable with the reboot’s subject matter: “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.”
Hurwitz continued: “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.”
Despite the reboot’s cancellation, Hilary Duff said last year in an interview that she’s still “optimistic” that a reboot could happen: “Disney+ was very new and I think they were figuring out their… and we were figuring out our… and I am optimistic.”
“It would be a dream if Disney would let us move the show to Hulu, if they were interested, and I could bring this beloved character to life again,” Duff wrote on Instagram. She also wrote, “I’d be doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30 year old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating.”
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