The award-winning director Pam Fryman, who directed all but twelve episodes of How I Met Your Mother, has been confirmed to direct the first episode of its spin-off, How I Met Your Father. The programme has recently received a straight-to-series order from Hulu for ten episodes, produced by 20th Television, and Fryman will also be an executive producer on the series.
Hilary Duff has been cast as the main character, Sophie, and the show will follow the same format as How I Met Your Mother, which started in 2005 and ran for nine series. Using flashbacks to her life as a single woman, Sophie will tell her son the story of how she met his father. As with Ted Mosby and his peers, Sophie and her friends will be navigating adulthood and the dating world, but this time in the updated setting of 2021, with dating apps and limitless options.
Also announced are writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas as executive producers, and Adam Londy as co-executive producer. Hilary Duff has been confirmed as a producer of the show, as well as the star. Chris Lowell is the only other cast member announced so far, and he will be playing Jesse, an aspiring musician.
Pam Fryman said, “My only complaint about my time on HIMYM was that it came to an end – and I’m so excited to be stepping back into this world I love so much with Carter and Craig.”
In turn, Carter Bays and Craig Thomas said, “We couldn’t imagine embarking on this next chapter without her.”
Fryman brings her extensive sitcom experience to the production, having directed over 500 episodes of television, including major household names like Friends, Frasier, and Two and a Half Men. She was also attached to the 2014 pilot for How I Met Your Dad starring Greta Gerwig, which was made for CBS, but didn’t get picked up. How I Met Your Father will be the fourth iteration of this idea, after three previous failed attempts.
Words by Maddy Parker
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