Hilary Duff Wants Off of Disney+, Would Like ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Reboot to Head to Hulu
How bad does your streaming service have to be that people would rather be on Hulu? No one wants to be on Hulu. The Handmaid’s Tale doesn’t want to be on Hulu and it’s such a big hit for the platform that you probably have a decent idea what it’s about from references made to it on shows people actually watch.
But following Disney’s exile of the family-unfriendly Love, Simon TV spin-off and it’s LGBT themes to Hulu, Hilary Duff is actually hoping her Lizzie McGuire reboot similarly gets sent to Disney’s streaming sitcom graveyard.
Was incredibly excited to launch ‘Lizzie’ on D+ and my passion remains! However, I feel a huge responsibility to honor the fans’ relationship with Lizzie who, like me, grew up seeing themselves in her. I’d 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. It’s important to me that just as her experiences as a preteen/teenager navigating life were authentic, her next chapters are equally as real and relatable. It would be a dream if Disney would let us move the show to Hulu, if they were interested, and I could bring this beloved character to life again.
I have two things to say about this. The first is obvious: Disney has been making assembly-line entertainment for decades now. Disney Channel sitcoms often get three seasons and then cancelled regardless of how well they’re doing in the ratings because Disney thinks their audience for the channel only sticks around for about three years. Probably doesn’t hurt that three years is right around when actors would get pay raises, either. Disney is more interested in consistency than creativity, and Duff clearly wants to break out of the mold, which is how you get cancelled before ever going to air at Disney.
The other thing worth mentioning is that Disney deciding Disney+ had to be “family friendly” was a big mistake. They should have gone with the Netflix model of for kids accounts and all-access accounts. The streamer isn’t even four months old and they’re already running into issues with what “family-friendly” means with borderline young adult shows like Love, Victor and Lizzie. It defeats the purpose of an all-in-one-place Disney streaming service if half your catalogue is going to be on Hulu.
