In August 2019, it was announced that Lizzie McGuire, broadcast between 2001 and 2004, would be resurrected with Disney. Then the company was sold as the Holy Grail that would lead the company that owns Marvel or Star Wars to further devastate the entertainment industry. In December 2020, however, Hilary Duff informed fans that the project would not continue. At Disney they had reluctance about the direction the story was taking and preferred to turn off the tap for a production that, at an image level, did not fit with their streaming service. And, after three years, we can finally deduce what specific element bothered the managers.
The philosophy of Lizzie McGuire’s sequel had already been explained by Duff at the time: “It is important to me that, in the same way that her experiences as a preteen and teenager navigating life were authentic, her new chapters are just as close and identifiable.” This implied that, despite maintaining the humor and the animated version of Duff, the episodes were going to have a more adult and, consequently, more sexual drift. But screenwriter Jonathan Hurwitz has explained exactly what the first episodes that will never see the light of day consisted of.
In the first episode, which was filmed, Lizzie was in New York working as an interior designer. When she discovered that her boyfriend, a cook, was cheating on her with her best friend in the city, she moved back to California. And, in the second episode also produced, viewers could discover what had happened to Gordo (Adam Lamberg): he was engaged and about to become a father. The protagonist also received a message from her crush, Ethan Craft (Clayton Snyder).
This is where the topic gets interesting. According to Hurwitz, the reason that convinced Disney directors to cancel the project was the script for the third chapter that was never filmed. “Lizzie wakes up in Ethan’s bed, wearing her water polo shirt. The animated Lizzie appears and has a little list, like a list of things to do, and Ethan is on the list and she crosses it off,” the screenwriter said about the scene.
At the time of the cancellation, in fact, Disney was in an era of profligate spending. Let us remember that he had given the green light to series like The Mandalorian, with a budget of 100 million for the first season, or WandaVision, which was speculated to have come out for more than 200 million. But, while scenes of violence (without blood) were accepted in the Disney catalog, the idea of ??introducing scenes related to sex was of great concern in the offices.
It was not the only series affected by this very conservative mentality. Love, Victor, the television reboot of the film Love, Simon, had initially received the green light to air on Disney. It was a romantic comedy with a homosexual protagonist, with Michael Cimino in the role of Victor, and the directors were scared when they saw that the first season included reckless alcohol consumption or doubts about first sexual experiences.
Love, Victor, however, was not canceled: the project was relocated to Hulu, the platform in which Disney was a majority shareholder, although in the international market the content was included in Disney, taking advantage of the existence of the Star tab. Lizzie McGuire was not this lucky, possibly affected by the fact that it was a series born at Disney and so associated with the brand.
Hilary Duff said goodbye to the project from her social media profile: “I have been very honored to have the character of Lizzie in my life. She has had a great impact on many, including myself. Seeing the loyalty and love of fans towards “She, still to this day, means a lot to me. I know that the efforts and conversations have been everything to try to move the reboot forward, but unfortunately despite the best efforts, it is not going to happen.”
“I want any of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to the kind of person Lizzie would be today. It’s what she deserves. We can all take a moment to grieve what an incredible woman she would have become and the adventures we would have taken her on. “I’m so sad but I promise everyone tried to do their best and the stars just didn’t align,” she posted.
The situation did not sour the relationship between the studio and Duff. After the cancellation, the actress was hired to star in How I Met Your Father, the reboot of How I Met Your Mother with Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger as creative heads, who had just come from working on Love, Victor.
There she was able to explore what it meant to be a single woman in her thirties in New York, accompanied by actors like Francia Raisa, Christopher Lowell and Kim Cattrall playing the adult version of her character. Of course, the experience did not last too long: released in January 2022, it was canceled after the broadcast of the second season, which said goodbye in July 2023.
