'How I Met Your Father': Hulu Announces 'How I Met Your Mother' Spin-Off Series Starring Hilary Duff

Wait for it...How I Met Your Mother is getting a spin-off series. Hulu announced that it has ordered How I Met Your Father, a follow-up to the beloved CBS sitcom which is set to star Hilary Duff in the lead role.

How I Met Your Father, a new comedy series from Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger (This Is Us, Love, Victor) has received a straight to series order to stream exclusively on Hulu in the U.S.

The 10-episode comedy will star Hilary Duff, fresh off the cancelation of the doomed Lizzie McGuire sequel series, as Sophie, who is "telling her son the story of how she met his father: a story that catapults us back to the year 2021 where Sophie and her close-knit group of friends are in the midst of figuring out who they are, what they want out of life, and how to fall in love in the age of dating apps and limitless options."

Duff will also serve as producer on the Hulu Original, which will use a multi- and single-camera approach similar to its predecessor. How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will executive produce alongside Aptaker and Berger. 20th Television, which produced the original sitcom, will once again serve as the studio.

Bays and Thomas said in a statement, "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.)"

Aptaker and Berger added, "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."

Duff is finally brought into the Hulu fold after she lobbied unsuccessfully to get have the streamer pick up the revival of her Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire from Disney+, which axed the show when it was deemed too "adult" for its family-friendly service. Hulu had swept into save Love, Victor after it was dropped by Disney+ for similar reasons, but Lizzie McGuire had no such luck (this is your chance to cast the Lizzie McGuire cast in How I Met Your Father and get your sequel anyway, Hilary). And with TV Land's critically acclaimed Younger set to air its final season on Paramount+, Duff is on the lookout for her next gig.

She also steps into the spin-off series after the first attempted spin-off How I Met Your Dad, which was originally set to star and be written by Greta Gerwig. The series even shot a pilot, before it got axed (likely due to the blowback of the famously disliked ending of How I Met Your Mother), leading Gerwig to pursue a directorial career that would give us Oscar-winning fare like Lady Bird and Little Women. But it appears enough years have passed since the divisive How I Met Your Mother ending — and the right Sliding Door has been chosen, with Gerwig now an award-winning director — that 20th Century TV is trying their hand at the female-led sitcom spin-off again.