The original series of How I Met Your Mother still elicits plenty of laughs and is certainly on our list of go-to shows to rewatch when we’re in the mood for something light.
However, it must be said that — like many television shows from that time period — some of the jokes haven’t aged terribly well and the way Barney treated women was downright gross.
So, we are very excited to see what kind of modern spin the reboot How I Met Your Father will put on the concept, as Hilary Duff steps into the “Ted Mosby” role and plays Sophie — who is recounting to her kids the tale of how she met their Dad.
Here’s what we know about the series so far.
The Cast
In addition to Duff as Sophie, How I Met Your Father will also star Chris Lowell (Veronica Mars) as Sophie’s best friend and love interest Jesse — a cynic who has a side hustle as an Uber driver.
Francia Raisa (grown-ish) will play Valentina: Sophie’s roommate and an aspiring stylist while Tom Ainsley (Versaille) has been cast as Charlie — an aspiring model who fell in love with Valentina and has followed her back to New York.
Tien Tran (Candyman) joins the reboot as Jesse’s adopted sister, Ellen, who has moved to New York after splitting from her wife and Suraj Sharma (Little America) rounds out the cast as Ellen’s new roommate, Sid.
So, right away the reboot is doing a far better job in the diversity stakes, which is in contrast to the original that was extremely white and hetero.
And, of course, former Sex and the City star, Kim Cattrall has been cast as the future version of Duff’s character Sophie.
The Plot
The show’s official synopsis reads: “In the near future, Sophie 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 Returning Players
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem likely that any of the original cast (Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Radnor, Alyson Hannigan, Cobie Smulders) will be making an appearance in How I Met Your Father — although you never know. It’s not uncommon for reimagined shows to poke fun at themselves by having an original star appear in a cameo so we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
The creators of the original series — Carter Bays and Craig Thomas — are returning as executive producers, however, so we can likely expect plenty more fast-paced timeline shuffling, running gags and legend-wait for it-dary laughs.
At the time of the show’s announcement, Bays and Thomas expressed their excitement at the project saying, “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 honoured 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.)”
The Release Date
How I Met Your Father is set to premiere on January 18, 2022, in the US, so hopefully Australia will get it at around the same time.
The series is being made for streaming platform Hulu in the US, so it could mean that it will air in Australia on SBS and SBS on demand, just like other Hulu originals The Handmaid’s Tale and Shrill.
The Trailer
The first trailer for the reboot shows that Kim Cattrall will apparently be far more present as future Sophie as opposed to Bob Saget who served as the voice of Ted and was never actually seen in the series.
We see Cattrall’s Sophie telling her son (i.e. the audience) the complicated story about how she met her kid’s father, with the new series kicking off in the year 2021.
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