'Lizzie McGuire' writer reveals plot details for canceled reboot

Fans of the “Lizzie McGuire” reboot were excited to see the return of Hilary Duff as the titular character and learn more about her life.

In 2019, the new series brought back the main cast, filmed the first few episodes and even released photos before Disney+ put it on hiatus due to creative differences. Duff even spoke out after the cancellation, hoping Hulu would save “Lizzie McGuire.”

Now, years later, writer Jonathan Hurwitz, who worked on the reboot, is sharing what storylines were included in the first handful of episodes — including if Lizzie and her bestie Gordo (Adam Lamberg) ever dated and Miranda's sexuality.

“Lizzie McGuire” ran from 2001 to 2004. The show centered on Duff’s 13-year-old Lizzie as she experienced the emotional roller coaster of middle school with her best friends, Miranda (Lalaine) and Gordo.

The reboot was said to focus on Lizzie’s current life in her 30s.

In a TikTok video, Hurwitz said they wrote the first three episodes and filmed two. TODAY.com has reached out to Disney for comment on the storylines he presented in his videos but has not heard back.

Where did the 'Lizzie McGuire' revival pick up?

“Basically, it starts in New York,” Hurwitz said about the reboot. “Lizzie’s been working and living there as an interior designer, and she’s dating this very, very handsome chef. And she ends up finding that he’s been cheating on her with her best friend.”

Hurwitz then shared that the pilot ended with Lizzie returning to her parents’ home in California, where she goes back to her childhood bedroom and “where little animated Lizzie has been waiting for her.”

Did Lizzie and Gordo end up together in the reboot?

He explained that people were wondering if Lizzie and Gordo were “end game” and ever got together.

“You would’ve gotten an answer in Episode Two,” he said. “Lizzie meets up with Gordo, who she’s just kind of been in touch with via text over the years, occasionally. And they meet up and Gordo reveals that he is engaged, engaged to a woman and she’s pregnant and they’re really happy. So no, in this version, Lizzie and Gordo would not have ended up together.”

The second episode, however, he said, ends with Lizzie getting a text from her childhood crush Ethan Craft (Clayton Snyder) “and animated Lizzie faints.”

Amid the filming for the reboot, Disney+ released a new photo of Lizzie and Gordo together.

In another TikTok, Hurwitz further elaborated on why the writers didn’t think Lizzie and Gordo should end up together.

“Ultimately... you grow up and sometimes you move away from your best friends and you have new experiences and you date other people and you evolve,” he said.

“And we just didn’t believe that they would be each other’s long-term romantic partner. It just felt more realistic to us that they drifted a little bit as they got older and now they are reconnecting, that they’re going through these major life changes.”

What happens with Lizzie and Ethan?

Hurwitz said that the third episode was not filmed and suggests that Disney had some issues with what was written.

“Episode Three wasn’t filmed, but there was a script for it,” he said. “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, ‘Well, checked that box — dramatic pause — twice.’ So if I had to guess, I saw another comment about certain storylines (on) maybe why Disney wasn’t comfortable with it. My guess was that moment was probably one of them,” he said.

In a follow-up TikTok, Hurwitz clarified that they were not going to actually show Lizzie and Ethan having sex — “just Lizzie walking up in Ethan’s shirt.”

“Ethan heard from Gordo that Lizzie was in town and that’s why he reached out,” he said. “And he wants to hang again.”

Lizzie's new adventure continues with new friends

Lizzie told Ethan that she can’t see him again because she’s going back to New York, Hurwitz said. She then accidentally requests an Uber pool and meets a “gay guy named Carson” from Indiana “and he’s obsessed with snacks from the ‘90s and they end up spending the day together and have just had like a really great, great time together.”

Lizzie ends up getting a birthday cake sent to her parents’ house from her ex Emmett, which confuses her since she didn’t tell him where she went. Matt, Lizzie’s brother, “who is super tech savvy,” the writer said, discovers that Emmett put a tracking app on Lizzie’s phone.

She then takes the cake to Carson’s house and she meets his “quirky neighbor” Suze.

“The three of them end up talking and laughing and playing games just having a really good time. And at the end of the night, Carson asks if Lizzie wants to move into the empty room in his apartment. And so the episode ends with her kind of, like, seriously considering not going back to New York so she can rebuild a life in California,” he says.

Hurwitz noted that Episodes Four through Eight were not fully developed and Disney did not see scripts, though ideas were pitched.

Lizzie's life in New York explained

Hurwitz shared some context surrounding a photo of Lizzie holding an alpaca that was released by the company. He noted that Lizzie is an assistant to a successful interior designer named Damian who is doing a photoshoot for a magazine interview.

“So Lizzie has gone out to find some last-minute touches for the apartment, including this fluffy adorable alpaca that Damian thinks is a llama,” he said. “He insists that she get rid of it, but New York magazine ends up putting it front and center in the photo shoot and it’s a huge, huge hit. And Lizzie asked to be credited in the magazine, but Damian says no and Lizzie kind of finally realizes that she’s never going to grow after working for this guy for five years. So she ends up quitting.”

In an additional Jan. 22 TikTok, Hurwitz said that Lizzie went by Elizabeth while wanting to be an interior designer in New York.

What happened to Miranda in the 'Lizzie McGuire' reboot?

Hurwitz also touched on where Miranda would be up to in the reboot.

"We talked a lot about Miranda, and her being a musician was part of the discussion," he said, adding that she would be on tour with the band. "Her being queer was also part of the discussion. So you likely would have met the woman that she’s in a relationship with.”

He also shared that Lalaine was not confirmed as part of the show, but hoped she would be open to it.

“As for Lane’s involvement, I really don’t know if casting ever reached out to her. All I do know is that her manager and I happen to be at the same event and he came up to me and said that Lalaine was open to being involved,” he said. “So I’m hopeful that we could have actually had her be involved.”

What happened to other 'Lizzie McGuire' characters?

Hurwitz said that Lizzie and her younger brother, Matt (Jake Thomas), “was very much going to be a part” of Lizzie’s life.

“I think he would have actually gotten to see Lizzie and Matt figure out how to be friends, like true friends, now that they’re adults,” he shared.

Lizzie’s dad, Sam McGuire (Robert Carradine), actually had a heart attack that they never told Lizzie about.

“You would have seen Lizzie and her family kind of trying to reconfigure as a unit now that Lizzie's home,” he said.

The writer also mentioned Lizzie’s high school rival Kate (Ashlie Brillault), saying that they were not planning a storyline with her.

“I think the actress who played her, Ashlie,” he said. “I believe she’s an attorney, which was brought up in the room and I don’t believe she’s in the acting game anymore. So we weren’t planning a storyline for her. I think had she maybe been open to being in it, we could have maybe found a small way to do a cameo.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com