'Lizzie McGuire' Star Jake Thomas Explains Why Reboot 'Fell Apart'

Fans were left feeling disappointed when the highly-anticipated Lizzie McGuire reboot was canceled before it ever aired. While Hilary Duff herself has opened up about the experience, another of the show's stars is sharing new insight into what went wrong.

Jake Thomas, who played Lizzie's younger brother Matt, recently spoke with People about the reboot planned for Disney+ that was ultimately scrapped after years of "rumblings" of reviving the beloved 2000s series.

"I had heard rumblings for many years that they were trying to put something together, whether it was another movie or a series or something, but none of those rumors really ever held weight to me," he said. "Then suddenly, it just came together very quickly. And we filmed two episodes at the end of 2019, and unfortunately when we came back January-ish, things had started to fall apart."

The 35-year-old actor implied part of the breakdown came from the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting business as usual, but situations like this happen often in the industry.

"Then 2020 happened and it was the wrong time, it was the wrong circumstances," he said. "I feel like sometimes it just kind of works out that way. That's Hollywood. That's the way I've always phrased it. It's disappointing, but I was really looking forward to people getting to see the characters again. It was really exciting."

Even though the project was halted, Thomas still has hope for the future for fans to see how their "favorite characters" are handling adult life.

"Whether or not it will be revisited again in the future, it's very hard to say," he said. "I still stay very optimistic about it just because we went from the end of the original series in the movie to the reboot happening, and we had something like 17 years in between."