Fans of the Disney original show, Lizzie Mcguire, were thrilled when a revival of the series was announced. Even lead actress, Hilary Duff, was more than excited to bring the adult version of Lizzie back to the small screen. But just last Friday, the former child star posted a request on Instagram requesting Disney to move the show from Disney+ to Hulu, so that the show would not be limited to the platform’s PG rating.
Hilary Duff, as well as some members of the original cast, were set to reprise their roles in the modern rendition of the show. Unfortunately, the show’s production has been off to a rocky start. After finishing the production for two episodes, the original creator and showrunner Terri Minsky was fired which resulted in production being completely halted. Both Minsky and Duff wanted to do a more mature take on the show, focusing on the actual problems of a 30-year-old, but, according to Variety, Disney opted to move in a different direction after seeing the first few episodes.
Disney, with its new CEO Bob Chapek, wanted the show to appeal to both kids and adults, kind of echoing the original theme of the old series. Duff mentions in the Instagram post that, in doing so, she would be “doing a disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30-year-old’s journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating.”
Duff’s request to move platforms came shortly after news of another Disney show, Love, Simon, was moved to Hulu after it was deemed not “family-friendly.” Duff posted a screenshot of this news on her Instagram story circling the words “family-friendly” and captioned it with a sly, “Sounds familiar?”. Interestingly enough, Love, Simon (now called Love, Victor) is not the only show to jump platforms. Zoe Kravitz’s “High Fidelity” also jumped from Disney+ to Hulu a couple of weeks after Disney acquired Fox.
It may very well be that Disney is purposely segregating its shows and moving more mature content to Hulu. The company has yet named a new showrunner to replace Minsky and production is still on hiatus.