‘How I Met Your Mother’ Sequel Series Officially Happening at Hulu

Everybody, take out your yellow umbrellas, because How I Met Your Mother is coming back… sort of.

 

It was officially announced today that Hulu has ordered to series a sequel to the 2005 hit show from creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas that ran for nine (outstanding) seasons. The new show, titled How I Met Your Father, will be a modern-day telling of the story, following the same story elements of who our characters are and what is their place in the world, and infusing it with modern dating techniques like Tinder. I would guess that they are also going to update the humor, maybe even including references to the #MeToo movement.

 

As far as talent goes, Hilary Duff is attached to play the lead role of Sophie, who is telling her kids the story of how she met her father, starting in the year 2021. Duff will produce the show too. She said (per Variety):

 

“I’ve been incredibly lucky in my career to play some wonderful characters and I’m looking forward to taking on the role of Sophie. As a huge fan of ‘How I Met Your Mother,’ I’m honored and even a little nervous that Carter and Craig would trust me with the sequel of their baby. Isaac and Elizabeth are brilliant, and I can’t wait to work alongside them and all of their genius. Just fangirling over here getting to join the Hulu Originals and 20th families. I realize these are big shoes to fill and I’m excited to slip my 6 ½’s in there!”

 

Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who co-created Love, Victor, and were co-showrunners on This Is Us are attached as the main writers and executive producers. They said in a statement:

 

“We are beyond excited to be bringing ‘How I Met Your Father’ to Hulu. Carter and Craig’s iconic original series revolutionized the half-hour comedy, and we are so honored to be carrying the torch forward for the next generation – and with Hilary Duff no less! We can’t wait for audiences to meet Sophie and her crew, and watch them come into their own and find love in modern-day New York City. And we hope nobody thinks it’s weird that Bob Saget will be playing old Hilary Duff’s voice.”

 

Bays and Thomas will also executive produce. They added:

 

“Kids, I’m going to tell you an incredible story: It’s the story of how two writers got lucky enough to make their dream TV show for nine seasons and now get to pass the torch to an inspired new creative team with their own incredible story to tell, the story of ‘How I Met Your Father.’ We are honored by their passion and vision, and look forward to helping them tell a legendary new story. (Thanks to all the ‘HIMYM’ fans out there who waited for it.)”

 

Duff was attached to play Lizzy McGuire again for a Disney Plus show that eventually got canned in the middle of shooting after some creative differences between the creator and the studio.

 

Going back to How I Met Your Father, it’s really hard for me to have an opinion on this. The original show is an all-time favorite of mine and a show I’m obsessed about, and a constant rewatch in my Netflix queue. I could literally write thousands of words talking about how the ending of the show made zero sense and how it represents a betrayal of everything they had built up until the last five minutes. And I mean literally, not figuratively. Besides that, there are not a lot of mistakes in the show for me. Some of its comedy may seem insensitive if it came out today, but I absolutely love it.

 

One interesting detail is that, according to this report, the series will start in 2021 (of course, Duff will be narrating to her kids in the future, but the present-day will be 2021), which could mean that we might see it later this year. It will be interesting to know who they cast alongside her, although they will probably be unknowns, much like the original HIMYM cast.

 

In regards to connections to the original show, we know nothing at the moment. The project is being described as a sequel, but there was no Sophie in 2005’s version, and Duff was absolutely not a part of it. It’s possible that one of the members of the gang has a connection to the original mom, played brilliantly by Cristin Milioti, and they might take the chance to give Tracy more screentime than in the original series (who, spoiler alert, in HIMYM continuity would be in the last stages of her life in 2021).

 

It’s really hard to follow up a near-perfect show, so best of luck to everybody involved. CBS actually tried to order a HIMYM spinoff series back in 2014 called How I Met Your Dad, starring Greta Gerwig, but it never made it past the pilot episode. The fact that a series has already been ordered for How I Met Your Father hopefully speaks to this spinoff’s quality. We’ll keep you informed of everything that happens with this new series moving forward.