Talk about legen ― wait for it ― dary: Hilary Duff will star in and and produce “How I Met Your Father,” the long-in-the-works sequel series to the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother.”
Hulu has given the 10-episode comedy a straight-to-series order, which means Duff will be falling in love in reverse in no time.
Much like its predecessor, which signed off in 2014 after nine seasons, the sequel series will see Duff’s character spin a yarn about how exactly her family came to be.
“In the near future, Sophie (Duff) 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,” the Hulu description reads.
“How I Met Your Mother” creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will return to executive produce, but “Love, Victor” and “This Is Us” showrunners Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger will take the lead this time to oversee the new series. They’ll also serve as writers and executive producers.
“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,” Duff said in a statement. “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!”
She also announced the show on Instagram:
“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.‘” Bays and Thomas said in their own statement. “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.)”
Over the past decade, there have been a handful of attempts to launch a “HIMYM” spinoff series with a female lead, most notably when “Little Women” director Greta Gerwig was attached to star in a show titled “How I Met Your Dad” back in 2014. All of those projects were either scrapped or languished in development purgatory, with many fans losing hope until Aptaker and Berger came along.
Duff, who has most recently been seen on TVLand’s “Younger,” currently airing its final season, has long made it known that she’s a fan of Hulu.
After Disney+ pulled the much-buzzed-about “Lizzie McGuire” reboot over behind-the-scenes issues about the more adult direction of the series, Duff publicly asked the streaming service to move it to Hulu, presumably paving the way for this new partnership.