Lizzie McGuire Would Have Had Rebound Sex With [Spoiler] in Cancelled Disney+ Revival
It’s been more than three years since Disney+ decided to scrap its grown-up Lizzie McGuire revival, but if you think we’re done talking about it, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Fortunately, we have some fresh tea to discuss, courtesy of writer Jonathan Hurwitz, who confirmed on TikTok that Lizzie’s reunion with middle school BFF Gordo (Adam Lamberg) wouldn’t exactly go the way some fans hoped.
The long-awaited reunion would go down in Episode 2, in which viewers would learn that Lizzie and Gordo have been texting “occasionally” over the years. But rather than picking up where they left off in Italy, Gordo would reveal to Lizzie that he’s happily engaged with a baby on the way.
Episode 2 would have ended with Lizzie getting a text from her old crush Ethan Craft (Clayton Snyder), the mere sight of which would cause Lizzie’s animated self to faint. Episode 3, which was not filmed, would begin with Lizzie waking up in Ethan’s bed; animated Lizzie would then check Ethan off her to-do list… twice.
As previously reported, this continuation of the iconic Disney Channel series (2001–2004) would pick up with a 30-something Lizzie (Hilary Duff) working in New York City as an interior designer and living with her gay roommate. Upon discovering that her handsome chef boyfriend has been cheating on her with her best friend, a distraught Lizzie would go home to California, where animated Lizzie has been waiting for her. (Side note: Lizzie is apparently so distraught by her boyfriend’s cheating that she cranks up some Ariana Grande and gives herself bangs. That felt important to mention.)
Despite having two episodes filmed and at least one more written, Disney+ decided to pull the plug on Lizzie, deeming the revival too adult for a family-friendly streaming service. Duff and series creator Terri Minsky campaigned to have the show relocated to Hulu, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
“Sadly [and] despite everyone’s best efforts, it isn’t going to happen,” Duff said in December 2020. “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.”
Are you still disappointed that we’ll never get to meet grown-up Lizzie? Drop a comment with your thoughts below.
This was going to be sooooo good. Will never understand why they didn’t put it on Hulu.
Disney was never going to go for a Sex and the City theme. They wanted a wholesome, family friendly sequel. They were never going to let her be a girl on the prowl.
.
And this show was basically going to jettison all the old characters in favor of Lizzy and a few new friends.
But even that doesn’t make sense. Raven’s Home and Girl Meets World have been done, whereas Lizzie opens Disney up to such a higher market cap. Kids today don’t know Lizzie, so the built in kid audience would be so much lower than the adult one. It’s like this is the one IP where Disney decided, “Hey, we have a guaranteed fan base for this. Let’s be so rigid in its execution that we cancel it altogether instead of putting it through our goliath IP machine.”
And then they made How I Met Your Father, which even has a Lizzie McGuire flashback.
I’m SO sad about it! I woul dhave loved it, and that sounds like a fun story!
Still mad about it, I would have been amazing. I love the plots of this 3 episodes. It’s sad.
*it
I was really looking forward to this series, and still mourn what it could have been. These synopses sound like so much fun, and as Duff says, are true to what a 30-something Lizzie would be up to. It would have been so nostalgic to see characters like Gordo and Ethan Craft again!
This should never have been created for Disney+. This reboot should have gone straight to Hulu, and aimed towards my demographic (mid 20s-early 30s) from the beginning — and it would have been successful! Let’s be honest: the name “Lizzie McGuire” means nothing to today’s 12 year-olds. It’s a shame that executives couldn’t see that and pivot the series to a better-suited sister service. They made the same mistake with Girl Meets World, and it seems they didn’t learn a thing.
At the time they shelved it maybe but now lines are blurred with Disney+ having all sorts of “mature” content today with some shows on Hulu vice versa. It just makes them look more clueless looking back that they didn’t just go for the reboot. Its a streaming service, not the disney channel.
Forever disappointed this didn’t get greenlit. Boo, Disney. Boo.
I would love to see a Lizzy revival. It was a great show and had a great movie. Brig us some Lizzy.
I’m torn. I’m a long time Lizzie/Gordo fan and believe they truly belong together still. I don’t believe they would have just texted occasionally. I also have trouble believing that she would have hooked up with Ethan Craft of all people. But still, I wish the show could have gotten greenlit.
Years later with all of the Disney+ mishaps along the way, scrapping this show remains a top contender for the worst one.
If only they could’ve waited another year or two for Disney+ to start embracing the idea of content that isn’t Marvel to also be PG-13 to be on their service. Or at the least move it to Hulu. I don’t know why Disney was so insistent on keeping the Lizzie McGuire property as family friendly. I don’t think many teens/tweens today are watching Lizzie reruns and those who know about the show are now old enough to enjoy what this new show was trying to become. Hopefully one day Disney will give them another shot.
Love everything about what they had planned. Disney+/Hulu should change their minds now that Hilary is free, because I’d give anything to see this show.
If Disney+ was smart, they should resurrect this. This is what Disney fans in their 30s want, something real and relatable. Their “play it safe”, cookie-cutter content bombed so hard that it’s been erased from existence. They’re now playing rather mature stuff these days with Marvel’s Echo and integrating Hulu into the service, so what if Lizzie gets it on now, she’s an adult now.
So sad that the reboot never happened! It sounds like it would have been good! Disney needs to grow up with the rest of us.
I totally support this call. We shouldn’t be encouraging people to make such bad adult decisions. Bangs? Seriously? Think of the children!
I would have watched this religiously for multiple seasons. This sounds amazing and perfect for the original audience that watched the show.
They should still release the two eps as a tv movie or special, and if its sucessful they can order a full season!
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am I disappointed? NO, I am FUMIIIIIIIING!!! This is property of millenials, it only affects us and not new children. No child on is browsing Disney+ wanting to watch lower resolution 2000s show. There was no reason to scrap this when the show creator envisioned all of this and full cast backed it up. I’m just mad this didn’t turn into a big issue, we should’ve stormed their headquarters lol
Incredibly bad decision on Disney’s part. It really does not make sense at all.
Please make it happen please.
Guarantee this will be it’s most watched show. Like maybe if they realised the 2 episodes on YouTube they’ll see it’s a fortune
This is such a shame… I initially subscribed to Disney+ looking forward to this show. I’m still holding out hope that Hulu will realize the market potential they have for this show. Be g mistake …. Huge Disney+, let the millennials see Lizzie at her full potential! Thank you TVLine for this update, great to hear even a bit more about this project.
Yeah what the hell? Marvel movies, Glee…those have gay characters in it and Lizzie is too ‘adult?’ How OLD do you think Lizzie fans are??? We are in our 30’s!!!
Still mad. Eff Disney for airing avengers trash that promotes violence with abusers like Jonathan majors but not a show about a grown woman who owns her sexuality. How would this not have worked on Hulu! Bonkers
Disney should’ve let them do the show how they wanted. They had good ideas and they should trust that it was gonna be good.
Yet they’re okay with having a series about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee .
Disney+ literally has TV-MA content now. What a mess.
I was really excited for this, but it probably would’ve been canceled and erased by now like some of their other great shows.
God this would have been a nightmare! Hooking up with the dumb (though sweet) Ethan instead of the intelligent (sweet) Grodo! No thank you! Also, ruining any hope they might that Grodo and Lizzie of being end game by having him be engaged not only to another women but a pregnant women at that is just cruel and gutrenchingly painful. Why would the writers do such a thing!? They know most fans shipped Lizzy and Gordo. I for one am glad Disney scrapped it so the movie is not ruined and Lizzie and Gordo are still together. Just thinking how closes this would have been to happening makes me seriously depressed. I hope if it’s looked at being picked up again that this storyline is dropped and that Lizzie and Gordo end up like Freddy and Carly on iCarly.