Lizzie McGuire's Jake Thomas Spills on Canceled Reboot, Reflects on Disney Show's Legacy (Exclusive)

Now, nearly five years after star Hilary Duff announced that the reboot was officially canceled, actor Jake Thomas -- AKA Matt McGuire -- is opening up to TooFab about what went wrong, and whether or not he believes a revival will still happen one day.

For those who need a refresher, Lizzie McGuire -- starring a teenage Duff as the titular character -- ran on Disney Channel from 2001 until 2004, consisting of two seasons and 65 episodes. The show also spawned the beloved 2023 spinoff film, The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

In 2019, Disney announced that a revival series was in development, with the show to premiere on its streamer, Disney+, which hadn't even launched yet. (Yes, it's been that long.)

The Lizzie McGuire reboot was said to follow the adventures of Duff's titular character as she's on the cusp of her 30th birthday, living in New York and working as an assistant to an interior decorator, before she moved back to her parents' home after a breakup. In addition to Duff and Thomas, the actors who played Lizzie's parents, Hallie Todd and Robert Carradine, along with her pal, Adam Lamberg, who starred as Gordo, were set to reprise their roles.

The highly anticipated revival series shot only two episodes before production was put on pause when showrunner Terri Minsky, who also created the original series, exited the show, reportedly due to creative differences with Disney. At the time, it was reported that Duff and Minskey wanted a more mature version of Lizzie McGuire for the reboot, while the Mouse House wanted something more family-friendly. Duff shared a publicly plea for Disney to move the series to Hulu so that they could continue to explore adult subjects -- but the show was ultimately axed in 2020.

While speaking with TooFab, Thomas shared details about what went down in those two episodes of the canceled reboot -- well, those he thinks he's allowed to share -- and recalled his disappointment when the reboot ultimately broke down.

"For the reboot, of the two episodes that we shot, I'm not sure even to this day how much I can divulge of like, plot lines and stuff," he admitted with a laugh. "But I do know, I mean, certain things were planned."

"I know that they were, you know, trying to lead the show in a certain direction. And then, you know, other people at power were also trying to lead the show in a different direction," he continued. "I will say that, you know, the first two episodes kind of set up Lizzie as you know, this is her life as an adult millennial turning 30, and seeing her life in New York. And then very quickly it all kind of falling apart, and her coming back home, and kind of in a way having to start from scratch, which I think is kind of a fun spin on it."

As for what his character Matt was up to, Thomas said, "I was pretty happy with what my character had. Matt was going to be just annoyingly successful. And just rubbing, you know,  Lizzie's nose in it, which I think I just, it's great. It's fantastic. I love that."

"I'm disappointed that we didn't get to explore even more with those characters and storylines. I know there was so much planned that was gonna be like, what?! But yeah, you know, I mean, that's the way it goes sometimes in Hollywood," he added, noting that he's had his "fair share" of pilots that will never see the light of day.

Thomas has previously pointed to a major timing issue regarding the Lizzie McGuire revival cancelation in interviews, including the pandemic. However, he told TooFab that there was a much bigger factor: Disney+ hadn't even launched yet! And while the streamer started out kid-friendly, fast forward to the present, Disney+ has content for all ages, with Hulu also combining with the streaming service -- something that Thomas pointed out.

"When I said before that, like, it was a timing issue, I do think it was a timing issue of kind of around the time of COVID, but I think probably the most important timing issue with why the reboot did not come to fruition was Disney+ had not launched yet," he explained. "And so internally, I think Disney didn't know exactly what they wanted their streamer to be. And so I think they started out with this idea at first that the things that were gonna be on Disney+ were gonna be purely family-friendly. It was gonna be the animated, it was gonna be the you know, the classics. It was gonna be stuff that was like Disney through and through, and they were having Lizzie McGuire within that umbrella."

"That's why they, you know, the idea of, like, moving it to Hulu was not so popular, I think within the Disney, you know, internal side that they wanted it to be. 'No, no, no, this is a Disney-branded thing,'" he continued. "We want this to fit into the Disney+ kind of shape that we want. And I think now, obviously, that's changed a whole lot, you know, just with the whole streaming sphere, and climate, even just within the Disney umbrella now, if you go on Disney+, it's a very different landscape, compared to how it was when it launched."

If the Lizzie McGuire reboot were to be in development today, Thomas said he believes they would have gone "without a hitch."

"In my opinion, I think that, you know, say we never did those two episodes of the reboot, and today we were gonna do the reboot with the exact same maybe kind of trajectory that some of the people within the creative wanted, I think we probably would've had no issue., which is unfortunate."

When TooFab asked Thomas if he thinks it can happen in the future, he explained, "I think, you know, if the right people today decided that, you know, they wanted to have another crack at it, I think it would probably go without a hitch."

"And I think people would still be really excited to see it just because, I mean, look, we're five years down the road from that falling apart, and people are still talking about it and being like, 'This is why I subscribed to Disney+!' So I, you know, yeah, I think it would still probably do well, but you know, time will tell if that'll happen. Just the right people have to be on board."

Meanwhile, Thomas also reflected on his time shooting the OG show, which will turn 25 in January.

"Does it feel like it's been 25 years or a quarter of a century now? Yes and no," he told TooFab. "I would say to a certain degree it does feel like a long time ago, because sometimes I will see clips of the show and be like, Man, ... I see that as now a completely different person almost. I vaguely remember, you know, certain scenes and episodes and times from that. But I mean, that was like a lifetime ago, which is crazy."

"But at the same time, too, you know, I feel that the show and, you know, my character have had such a big impact, I feel like on, you know, just millennial culture as it is," he continued. "And it feels like I'm never separated from that. It's always been a part of my life, which I think is a bit of a blessing and a curse, but I think nowadays I see it more as a blessing just because of, you know, I mean, for one thing, how everybody looks back on it as something that they love. So I absolutely, that's a blessing."

He also shared why he believes the show has maintained such a long-lasting legacy over two decades later.

"I think the thing that made Lizzie so special that people still talk about it today, I feel like it's a combination of a couple things," Thomas explained. "One, it's kind of from this time where the internet was still very new. Social media was not a thing. So in a way, it was kind of, I don't know, it kind of untouched by a social media sphere in a way. And it wasn't as milked dry for all that social media content. And it was just a show that you would watch, you know, every weekday or whenever it came on."

"And it was an exciting part of your day after school," he added. "There wasn't like a bunch of stuff you were, you know, you didn't come back home and watch a bunch of YouTube videos or watch whatever was on streaming. ... You were there exactly at that time, at that day to watch your episode of Lizzie McGuire. And I think that's really special."

He went on to highlight the show's messaging.

"I mean, everything in there ... our plot lines, even though we had really funny and silly moments, we always seemed to have a pretty clear message that we were trying to get across, whether it was about growing up, whether it was about family, about friends, about tough situations," Thomas shared. "I feel all of that was super relevant, even to me growing up at that time. All of those messages were stuff that an audience took with them through their lives and probably held pretty dear to their hearts. So I feel like there's a lot of different things, but a lot of things that kind of made it special, which is great."

Noting that Lizzie herself was super relatable, Thomas said, "She made mistakes, and you got to see her make the mistakes, which was great."

The actor also shared the shocking revelation that he did NOT get to film in Rome, Italy, along with several of his co-stars for 2003's The Lizzie McGuire Movie ... and still has yet to visit the city! Learn why he didn't get to go to Rome to shoot the film in the full interview at the top of this post.