Hilary Duff to star in 'How I Met Your Mother' sequel — here are the details
Hilary Duff has announced she is set to star in a sequel of "How I Met Your Mother," titled "How I Met Your Father."
"Where's your suit? Suit up! I'm excited about my job, if you can't tell, you guys — today's the day, the news came out that I am going to be shooting 'How I Met Your Father,'" the 33-year-old actor said Wednesday on her Instagram page to her 16.7 million followers. "I am playing the role of Sophie. I'm really excited to dig in and start finding out who Sophie is going to be, and the new on-screen family that I'm going to have."
Based on the lives of series creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, "How I Met Your Mother" premiered in 2005 and ran for nine seasons on CBS until 2014. It starred Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris and Alyson Hannigan.
The half-hour sitcom followed the exploits of a group of friends living in New York City and centered around the main character Ted Mosby, who recounted to his children the events that led him to meet their mother. This new version takes that same framing, but places it around Duff and her character.
A press release explained, "In the near future, Sophie (Duff) is telling her son the story of how she met his father: a story that catapults us back to the year 2021 where Sophie and her close-knit group of friends are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options."
Duff is set to produce the show, which comes from Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger (“This Is Us,” “Love, Victor”), who received a straight-to-series order for 10 episodes to stream exclusively on Hulu in the United States.
“We are beyond excited to be bringing ‘How I Met Your Father’ to Hulu," Aptaker and Berger said in the release sent to TODAY. "Carter and Craig’s iconic original series revolutionized the half-hour comedy, and we are so honored to be carrying the torch forward for the next generation — and with Hilary Duff no less! We can’t wait for audiences to meet Sophie and her crew, and watch them come into their own and find love in modern-day New York City. And we hope nobody thinks it’s weird that Bob Saget will be playing old Hilary Duff’s voice.”
“Kids, I’m going to tell you an incredible story: It’s the story of how two writers got lucky enough to make their dream TV show for nine seasons and now get to pass the torch to an inspired new creative team with their own incredible story to tell, the story of 'How I Met Your Father,'" Bays and Thomas said in the release. "We are honored by their passion and vision, and look forward to helping them tell a legendary new story. (Thanks to all the ‘HIMYM’ fans out there who waited for it.).”
The new series comes after many fans of Duff were disappointed that the promised "Lizzie McGuire" reboot for Disney+ got scrapped.
“Was incredibly excited to launch ‘Lizzie’ on D+ and my passion remains! However, I feel a huge responsibility to honor the fans’ relationship with LIZZIE who, like me, grew up seeing themselves in her,” Duff wrote last year. “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.”
She continued that she wanted the rebooted version to feel just as “authentic” as the early episodes did for fans of the beloved Disney series. She added, “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."
On Wednesday, Duff gushed about this new project with Hulu on the horizon.
"So, really looking forward to being a part of the Hulu and 20th Century family, and working with the amazing writers and producers that are spearheading this project," Duff said in her Instagram post. "I truly feel blessed and I can't wait. So I hope you're excited just like me!"
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