The #1 Unreleased Show in the Disney Vault I NEED to See!

In 2019, Disney announced the return of the groundbreaking television series Lizzie McGuire… only for production to end after two episodes, both of which are locked unseen in the Disney Vault. Enquiring millennial minds only have one question: What happened?

The entertainment landscape was a different place when Lizzie McGuire premiered in 2001. Starring Hillary Duff as the titular character, the series centered on the life of a 13-year-old girl navigating the ups and downs of middle school and teenage family life. The show’s unique conceit of Lizzie’s thoughts and emotions being conveyed through a fourth wall-breaking animated version of Lizzie — also voiced by Duff — separated the show from many others in the genre at the time. The series, which also starred Lalaine, Adam Lamberg, Jake Thomas, Hallie Todd, and Robert Carradine, was a massive hit for the Disney Channel, airing 65 episodes over two seasons, and ended with the theatrically released The Lizzie McGuire Movie in 2003. The series monster success led the Disney Channel to heights it had never before seen, and paved the way for later 2000s successes, including Hannah Montana and the High School Musical franchise.

For nearly two decades, fans of the series — myself included, as I was right in the elder millennial wheelhouse of the show — next thought we’d see the characters of Lizzie McGuire again… until 2019. At that year’s D23 Expo, it was announced that a new continuation of the series would be coming to the then-upcoming Disney+ streaming service from original creator Terri Minsky, with Duff reprising her role.

At the time, the new series was confirmed to follow Lizzie as “a 30-year-old millennial navigating life in New York City. Like the original series, it will include the familiar animated version of a young Lizzie who offers up funny, revealing commentary on what 30-year-old Lizzie is really thinking.”

In the following months, it was confirmed that Thomas, Todd, Carradine, and Lamberg would be reprising their roles, while Federico Dordei would be joining the cast as a new character. Production on the series began in New York in October 2019, before moving to Los Angeles.

Anticipation for the series was high… until it was announced in January of 2020 that production had ceased and Minsky had left the series. At the time, Disney released a statement that read, “Fans have a sentimental attachment to Lizzie McGuire and high expectations for a new series. After filming two episodes, we concluded that we need to move in a different creative direction and are putting a new lens on the show.”

The following month, Variety reported that Disney had issues with “adult” themes in the reboot that Minsky and Duff had envisioned. Minsky told the outlet, “I am so proud of the two episodes we did. Hilary has a grasp of Lizzie McGuire at 30 that needs to be seen. It’s a wonderful thing to watch. I would love the show to exist, but ideally, I would love it if it could be given that treatment of going to Hulu and doing the show that we were doing. That’s the part where I am completely in the dark. It’s important to me that this show was important to people. I felt like I wanted to do a show that was worthy of that kind of devotion.”

Duff initially stayed mum on the controversy, before taking to her Instagram account to release a statement which read in part: “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. It’s important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen/teenager navigating life were authentic, her next chapters are equally as real and relatable. 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.”

Things went quite in the midst of the COVID pandemic for most of 2020. That December, the proverbial “other shoe dropped” as Duff confirmed that the reboot wasn’t moving forward on her Instagram account.

The actress wrote, “I’ve been so honored to have the character of Lizzie in my life. She has made such a lasting impact on many, including myself. To see the fans’ loyalty and love for her, to this day, means so much to me. I know the efforts and conversations have been everywhere trying to make a reboot work, but, sadly & despite everyone’s best efforts, it isn’t going to happen. I want any reboot of Lizzie to be honest and authentic to who Lizzie would be today. 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. I’m very sad, but I promise everyone tried their best, and the stars just didn’t align. Hey now, this is what 2020’s made of.”

For their part, Disney said, “Lizzie McGuire fans have high expectations for any new stories. Unless and until we are confident we can meet those expectations, we’ve decided to hold off, and today, we informed the cast’s representatives that we are not moving forward with the planned series.”

Over the next few years, Duff — who would go on to star on How I Met Your Father, which was ironically enough streamed on Hulu for its two-season run — has spoken about the robot several times over the years, pointing to a disconnect between how she and Minsky thought Lizzie’s story and love life should play out vs Disney’s desire for a “family friendly” show in-line with the original series.

In addition, Jake Thomas — who was, as stated above, scheduled to return to the series as Lizzie’s brother Matt McGuire, said in 2025, “I still think that the show holds such a very special cultural value to a millennial audience, and there’s definitely a hunger for that audience to see what their favorite characters are up to these days and how they’ve adapted to this world. Because they were dealing with the same issues as us as a kid, and it would be very interesting to see their millennial take on it today.”

With all of that water under the bridge, it seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever see the two episodes that were filmed before the series was scrapped, and that’s a shame. Personally, I would love to see them for two reasons: First off, as a fan of the show, I would love to know where Minsky and Duff envisioned the characters nearly 20 years after we’d last seen them. Secondly, I would love to know just what kind of “adult” content (rumored to be issues revolving around Lizzie’s love life and her fiancé cheating on her) Disney found so inappropriate that they were willing to sacrifice a surefire cash-cow of a Disney+ series over it.

Lizzie McGuire was supposed to return in 2019… until it wasn’t, and millennials like myself are still desperate to know why. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney history.

I Can’t Be the Only Disney Adult Who Thinks About This Abandoned Hotel in the Middle of the Night

Are you sad we never saw the Lizzie McGuire revival? Let us know in the comments below.

Post a Comment