Has Disney halted its 'Lizzie McGuire' revival show because it's not 'family friendly' enough?

The reboot of Disney series Lizzie McGuire stalled back in January, after the studio unexpectedly fired Terri Minsky, the show's original creator and the showrunner on the new Disney+ series.

This happened after just two episodes were shot of the new series, with a spokesperson for the studio speaking of the need for 'a different creative direction'.

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Since then, there's been little to explain why the anticipated reboot of the teen show, with Hilary Duff reprising the role which turned her into a teen idol in the early 2000s, disappeared off the radar.

But now, according to reporting from Variety, some idea of what happened is starting to emerge.

Earlier this week, Duff posted to her Instagram stories a press report detailing how planned new Disney+ show Love, Simon has been moved on to US streamer Hulu, and renamed Love, Victor, after Disney deemed it not 'family-friendly' enough.

In posting the story, Duff added in the caption 'Sounds familiar'.

It's now said that both Duff and Minsky wanted to make a grown-up version of the show, with McGuire now in her 30s and touching on adult themes, but consequently clashed with Disney, which wanted a straight-up family show like the original.

Speaking to Variety, Minsky said: “I am so proud of the two episodes we did. Hilary has a grasp of Lizzie McGuire at 30 that needs to be seen.

“It’s a wonderful thing to watch. I would love the show to exist, but ideally I would love it if it could be given that treatment of going to Hulu and doing the show that we were doing. That’s the part where I am completely in the dark.

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“It’s important to me that this show was important to people. I felt like I wanted to do a show that was worthy of that kind of devotion.”

Disney has denied that the show has been scrapped altogether, however.

“We paused production on Lizzie McGuire a few weeks ago to allow time for some creative re-development,” it said in a statement.

“Our goal is to resume production and to tell an authentic story that connects to the millions who are emotionally invested in the character, and a new generation of viewers too.”

The original series first aired in 2001 on the Disney Channel, running over 65 episodes, and a movie arriving in 2003.