Disney went on the metaphorical march last week, rolling out its ambitious, incredibly expensive, probably unstoppable plans for the future of its Disney+ streaming service: Star Wars shows, Marvel shows, all the good branded content that you could possibly eat. (And then explode, because, again: Lot of shows.) One program that won’t be joining the grim crusade, though, is one that exemplified some of the streaming service’s early growing pains: The Lizzie McGuire revival being masterminded by original star Hilary Duff and original creator Terri Minsky, which has now been dubbed formally dead at the service.
Duff broke the news on Instagram earlier today, informing fans that “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.” Said news isn’t wholly surprising, given that Minsky departed the project all the way back in January 2020, after disagreements with Disney about the content of the proposed revival, which would have followed Lizzie into the adult world. According to sources from earlier this year, Minsky was hoping to have a more frank look at the sorts of issues a young woman might have at this later juncture of her life—like, say, presumably acknowledging at least the existence of sex—while Disney wanted to reportedly keep things more, well, Disney.
But Duff remained at least nominally attached to the project—at least, until today, when she confirmed that the series wouldn’t be going forward, at any level of sanitization. Disney acknowledged that the series died off today due to creative differences, while Duff went into a bit more detail (along with a cheery theme song update):
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.
