Is A ‘How I Met Your Mother’ Revival In The Works?

Fans of CBS’ “How I Met Your Mother” may not be over the series finale yet, but 20th Century Fox would like to bring back the show for another go around if series creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays are up for it.

During a conference call detailing Fox’s new fall schedule, chairman and CEO of Fox Television Group Dana Walden told reporters her hopes for a “How I Met Your Mother” revival. “At some point, I would hope we would have the opportunity to reunite those characters and tell new stories if Craig and Carter have the opportunity to do that,” she said.

If the cast of the original show is to get back together, it may take a while, seeing as many have moved on to other projects. Cobie Smulders, who played Robin, is now on “Friends From College,” while Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Radnor are on “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and “Rise,” respectively. During a 2017 episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” Harris was asked about a reunion and said, “Everyone’s kind of gone off and are doing their own stuff.”

There have previously been two attempts at spin-offs of the series. The first was in 2014 when series creators Bays and Thomas tapped Greta Gerwig for “How I Met Your Dad.” The show would have starred Gerwig as Sally and featured Meg Ryan doing the narration like Bob Saget did for “How I Met Your Mother.”

In addition to starring in the show, Gerwig would have also taken a role behind the scenes. “I contributed a lot into the pilot, and I’ll be in the writers room starting June 1 if they pick it up," she told E! News. “I shoot the pilot in like two weeks and then hopefully it becomes a real show.”

The network ordered the pilot before the end of the original series, but unfortunately for the team, CBS said it wasn’t what they had hoped for. “There were elements of the pilot that didn’t work out,” said CBS’ Nina Tassler. “I’m heartsick. We love this brand and we love this show, but it didn’t work out.”

Following CBS’ decision to pass on “How I Met Your Dad,” Bays and Thomas decided to let “This Is Us” executive producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger try their hand at a pilot. The two came up with “How I Met Your Father” which would have had no connection to the original series.

After being promoted to co-executive producers on “This Is Us,” the pilot was forced to the back burner. The new series would have featured a “brand new take on the premise with new characters and new writers,” reported Deadline.

If “How I Met Your Mother” does return for a revival, it would follow in the steps of shows such as “Arrested Development,” “Gilmore Girls” and “The X-Files,” which all saw new episodes created in recent years. NBC also has a “Will and Grace” revival planned for the fall, while Fox recently brought back “Prison Break.”