Hilary Duff cannot wait to step back into Lizzie McGuire’s shoes. The actress is set to reprise the role that shot her into global teen superstardom in the early 2000s with a sequel series coming to Disney+. The new show will follow a now 30-year-old Lizzie living as a professional in New York City.
Duff, whose series regular role on the TV Land comedy show Younger will not be affected by the new show, took to Instagram shortly after news of sequel series first broke at the D23 Expo Friday to share her excitement to revisit the iconic character.
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“SURPRISE!!! I’ve been trying to contain this excitement for a loooong time while this has been in the works! I am beyond excited to be home again, back with my girl ♥️…and into her 30’s,” McGuire wrote in the caption of a compilation video of some of the best moments from the Disney Channel series, playing along with The Lizzie McGuire Movie‘s hit song “What Dreams Are Made Of.”
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The actress, who had hinted at the possibility of a revival series in December, also opened up about how she felt it was the “right time” to revisit the character.
“The conversations have gone on for a couple of years and the timing just didn’t seem right and now Lizzie is turning 30,” Duff told PEOPLE. “For me, she was everybody’s best friend and she was there for us… entering your 30s is a really big deal.”
“I think it’s the right time to set back in and have her go along with you in your 30s and all the fun times, and all of the big monumental moments, and all of the challenges that you’re faced with,” she added. “I just thought that there was an opportunity there for her to be grown up and for her to be there for women again.”
Lizzie McGuire ran from 2001 to 2004 and followed 13-year-old Lizzie as she struggled with fitting in. Her animated alter ego represented her true feelings. The show lead to a 2003 movie, following Lizzie’s school trip to Rome, Italy, following her eighth grade graduation.
“I’m not gonna lie: I’m a little intimidated,” Duff told the outlet of revisiting Lizzie. “I’m like, ‘Where is she in there?’ She is in there; she is me. When I was 13, it was such a big part of me… I just have to tap into that and be very authentic to that.”
“Our lives are very different — she’s not a mother, I am already a mother — but I think that’s what’s exciting, to step into someone else’s world whose a little bit different than your own, but I can’t wait,” she added. “I can’t wait for her adventures, for her heartbreak, to see her goals and what she’s done.”
The Lizzie McGuire sequel series does not have a premiere date yet. Disney+ is set to launch Nov. 12.
