Hilary Duff was attached to the scrapped Lizzie McGuire revival (Picture: Aaron Poole/E! Entertainment/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
A writer on Lizzie McGuire has suggested a racy plot point turned Disney off the reboot.
Jonathan Hurwitz had been worked on the planned Disney+ revival of the classic sitcom, with Hilary Duff returning in the title role and even shooting the first two episodes.
Despite making progress, the show was shelved by bosses, and Jonathan thinks the reason why was a storyline in episode three.
The first episode saw Lizzie working as an interior designer in New York City, but she quickly moved back to California after her chef boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend.
Once she’s back at her childhood home, animated Lizzie is there for the ride, and by the end of episode two she gets a text from childhood crush Ethan Craft.
The third episode was never shot, but Jonathan thinks Disney took issue with the script.
In a TikTok video, he explained: ‘Episode three wasn’t filmed, but there was a script for it.
‘Lizzie wakes up in Ethan’s bed, in his water polo t-shirt. Animated Lizzie pops up and she has this little checklist, like a to-do list, and Ethan is on the list and she checks it off.
‘I think she says something like, “I checked that box – dramatic pause – twice.”
‘So if I had to guess, I saw another comment about certain storylines [about] why Disney wasn’t comfortable with it, my guess was… that moment was probably one of them.’
Animated Lizzie was also set to return but Disney ditched the project (Picture: Disney)
No, the show wouldn’t have actually featured a sex scene – but the implication may have been more than enough.
Back in 2020, Hilary said in a statement about the show being scrapped: ‘I know the efforts and conversations have been everywhere trying to make a reboot work but, sadly and despite everyone’s best efforts, it isn’t going to happen.’
Disney added at the time: ‘Lizzie McGuire fans have high expectations for any new stories.
Ethan and Lizzie were going to hook up (Picture: Disney)
‘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.’
Two years later, Hilary insisted she had told Disney+ that the series needed to focus on a more mature version of the beloved character.
‘She had to be 30 years old doing 30-year-old things,’ she told Women’s Health. ‘She didn’t need to be doing bong rips and having one-night stands all the time, but it had to be authentic. I think they got spooked.’
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The planned revival has been cancelled.