By Katherine Tinsley
4:31am PDT, Jun 13, 2025
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"Sometimes that just happens," Jake Thomas, who played Lizzie McGuire's brother, Matt, told
E! News when asked about how the project "fell apart" in 2020.
"It was bad timing with everything. It was right at the beginning of COVID," he added.
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Hilary Duff revealed in 2020 — just one year after announcing the project — that there were creative differences between her and Disney.
Duff called it a "disservice to everyone by limiting the realities of a 30-year-old's journey to live under the ceiling of a PG rating," according to
Entertainment Weekly.
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Despite the project not airing, Jake Thomas was happy to be a part of the reboot's cast.
"It's kind of crazy how embedded Lizzie McGuire has become within a millennial culture as something that we're still referencing today," Thomas shared. "It blows my mind, and I'm thankful for that."
"That makes it seem a little longer, but I feel like it's been such a part of my life that it's just always been a constant," he continued. "It doesn't feel like so long ago."
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In an interview with
Women's Health,
Hilary Duff shared that Disney struggled to greenlight her vision for Lizzie McGuire 2.0.
"She had to be 30 years old doing 30-year-old things," Duff said. "She didn't need to be doing bong rips and having one-night stands all the time, but it had to be authentic. I think they got spooked."
