How I Met Your Father is finally airing in Australia and we are already desperate to know who the “father” in question is.
The How I Met Your Mother reboot opens with Kim Cattrall, as Sophie, settling in for a Zoom call with her son (and a good bottle of white) in the year 2050 to recount what dating was like in 2022 and how she met his dad.
The 2022 version of Sophie is, of course, played by Hilary Duff who this time takes on the role of the lovelorn lead character once immortalised by Josh Radnor as Ted Mosby.
Perhaps because we were tortured for nine seasons of the original series to find out who the mother was, only to have her callously killed off in the final episode, this time we are very keen to save ourselves a similar heartbreak and use our sleuthing skills to crack the case, pronto.
Interestingly, future Sophie is not wearing a wedding ring which could mean that whoever she has a child with, has either also died or is just no longer her partner. It could also mean the series is more progressive than the first (it’s certainly more diverse) and has decided not to have Sophie and the father get married, but rather remain partners and co-parents.
Aside from that little nugget, we also know that the father is someone who Sophie meets in the very first episode — so we have a few options here. Let’s examine them, shall we? Don’t worry, there are no major spoilers ahead but if you’ve yet to watch the series, you might still want to hold off on reading this until you have.
Jesse
Played by Chris Lowell, Jesse is a teacher who moonlights as an Uber driver who happens to pick Sophie up on her way to a Tinder date.
Jesse had a rather unfortunate incident whereby he proposed to his girlfriend during a performance of their band, got rejected and fell off the stage and is now known as “Mr Proposal Fail”. This experience has soured him on love and relationships so he never wants to get married.
Ian
How I Met Your Father kicks off with Sophie heading to meet Ian for their first-ever date, although the two have been texting so incessantly for weeks that she is already convinced he is “the one.”
Their date goes perfectly until Ian announces he is moving to Australia (clearly the guy isn’t afraid of giant spiders so there’s a bonus right there). Sophie chases him to the airport to suggest they try long-distance but Ian says he just doesn’t think it will work and heads Down Under where we ladies are decidedly more chill after one IRL drink.
Charlie
This one is a stretch but it’s not impossible seeing as we are dealing with a franchise that loves to not only throw us curveballs but completely ignore the rules of friendship by having characters date their mates’ exes.
Charlie is the aristocratic English boyfriend of Sophie’s best friend and roommate Valentina so it would be fairly awkward if he and Sophie got together but again, the original features far more unlikely plot points.
Sid
Another unlikely, but not impossible option is Sid. Sid is a former med school attendee and is now a bar owner who is best friends with Jesse. Sid also gets engaged to a doctor named Hannah in the first episode so we are not holding our breath that he is the father.
Drew
While we don’t technically meet Drew until the third episode of How I Met Your Father, Sophie does technically meet him in the first episode as it turns out he was at the surprise party for Sid and Hannah that Sophie, Charlie and Valentina crash.
Drew, as it turns out, is the Vice-Principal at the school Jesse teaches at and was the person Sophie asked to borrow a phone charger from so she could text Ian.
So, Who the Is the Father?
At this stage, we have absolutely no idea and are likely to remain in the dark until the series finale when the father is finally revealed…and potentially unceremoniously offed, just like poor old Tracy McConnell-Mosby before him.
How I Met Your Father is now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes dropping every Wednesday.
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