It was confirmed in December that a Lizzie McGuire reboot would not be moving forward at Disney after the cast had already filmed two episodes, a decision that series star Hilary Duff attributed to the network wanting to keep the show family-friendly. In a new interview with Vice, Duff’s castmates, nearly all of whom had signed on to return in the reboot, spoke out about the decision, all expressing their disappointment.
“When we did the read-through of the first two scripts, there were literally three rows of chairs and in each chair was some kind of a Disney executive. I mean, there were 25 of them in there. And they were laughing their a—es off,” said Robert Carradine, who played Lizzie’s dad, Sam. “Every single step of that trajectory had to be greenlit by somebody who’s high up in the organization. So, you go to all that trouble and they decide at the last minute, out of the blue, that it needs to be more kid-friendly? I don’t get that.”
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Hallie Todd, Lizzie’s mom Jo, said that she was “sad” about the cancellation. “We had the best time when we got together for those two episodes,” she shared. “It felt like no time had passed, except that all of a sudden these kids were adults. It just seems ridiculous. There’s always more to it than you hear, and I certainly am not privy to those conversations in the back room.”
Jake Thomas, who played Lizzie’s younger brother Matt, explained that filming the reboot had given him a sense of nostalgia that he had been excited for fans to experience.
“Fans always tell me how watching the show was a staple of their childhood, and honestly, I was right there with them running to the TV every week to watch the latest episode,” he said. “When I walked onto the set of the rebuilt McGuire house for the reboot, it felt like such an unreal homecoming, an overwhelming childhood nostalgia. It saddens me greatly that the fans don’t get to share in that feeling.”
Duff confirmed in December that the reboot had been canceled, 10 months after original series creator Terri Minsky was fired from the project as Disney announced it had decided to “move in a different creative direction.” In a message on Instagram, Duff wrote that she has been “so honored to have the character of Lizzie in my life.”
“I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie is today,” she wrote. “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.”
