Who Is Hilary Duff Playing In 'How I Met Your Father'?

After six years as Kelsey Peters in the comedy-drama Younger, Hilary Duff is back for a new role on the small-screen for Hulu's How I Met Your Father.

The series, which hits Hulu on Tuesday, January 18, is not a reboot of the hit noughties show How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM), but a sequel set in the same world but also stands totally on its own.

Who is Hilary Duff playing in How I Met Your Father? Newsweek has everything you need to know.

Who Is Hilary Duff Playing In How I Met Your Father?

Fans of HIMYM will be pleased to know Hilary Duff is not playing a carbon-copy of Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor) with a female twist, or a relative of the original series protagonist.

Duff stars as Sophie, an entirely new character created specifically for How I Met Your Father.

A little like Ted, Sophie is a hopeless romantic looking for love, but that is where the similarities stop.

Sophie, who is about to hit her 30s and works as a photographer, lives in present-day New York City with her best friend, Valentina (Francia Raisa).

They have a tight-knit group of friends, consisting of Jesse (Chris Lowell), Sid (Suraj Sharma), Charlie (The Royals), and Ellen (Tien Tran).

In How I Met Your Father, an older Sophie in the year 2050 is telling her young son (who is unseen over a video call) about how she met his father. In doing so, she reflects on the best years of her life when she was figuring out who she was and what she wanted to do in life.

With her journey of self-discovery came a whole load of romance, some epic failures, and others long-lasting relationships.

Unlike HIMYM, How I Met Your Father also explores the options of online dating and social media and the limitless options available to Gen Z's and Millennials today.

In the first episode of How I Met Your Father, Sophie is crest-fallen after a series of failed Tinder dates. However, things are starting to look up when she meets the "seemingly perfect guy," the official synopsis via Hulu teases.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, Hilary Duff shared she was particularly drawn to her character. She described her as "extremely relatable" despite the fact in her real life she was in a "totally different place."

Duff also shared the series is not just about finding love, but everything that comes with it. As for the lows in Sophie's journey, Duff hopes it will help viewers feel less alone, reports Deadline.

Speaking separately to Entertainment Weekly, Duff teased what fans can expect to see in How I Met Your Father.

She shared: "There's so much opportunity for love stories with this show because it's Sophie and then, three dudes. So it's going down that whole rabbit hole of like, well, which one was the father? And you get to like go through all of Sophie's young experience of finding love and dating and what that's like in the modern world."

Reinforcing the concept of How I Met Your Father as a standalone show, co-creator Isaac Aptaker emphasized the series was not a "reboot."

He said: "People keep referring to the show as a 'reboot,' and it's not a reboot. It's set in the world of the previous show, but it's really its own thing."

Pamela Fryman, who was a director and executive producer on HIMYM and has worked on How I Met Your Father added: "One thing that I can take away from it, having been on How I Met Your Mother for so long, is that this is not How I Met Your Mother—and I loved How I Met Your Mother. This is How I Met Your Father, and it is so spectacular in its own right..."

How I Met Your Father premieres on Hulu on Tuesday, January 18, and episodes will air weekly on the streaming platform.