How I Met Your Father co-showrunner Elizabeth Berger considers how Ted Mosby and Hilary Duff’s Sophie are similar to each other. Currently airing its first season on Hulu, How I Met Your Father is a sequel series to CBS’ beloved How I Met Your Mother. That show followed Ted (Josh Radnor) and his friends as they navigated life, work, and love in early 2000s New York City. All the while, a grown Ted (Bob Saget) narrated the stories of his life to his kids, eventually culminating in the sought-after tale of how he met their mom.
Now that format has been revived for How I Met Your Father, albeit with a gender-swapped, 2022 twist. Set within the same world as HIMYM, the new show is centered on 30-year-old Sophie, a hopeless romantic who dreams of finding The One in the age of dating apps. Her older self is played by Kim Cattrall, who, in a marked difference from HIMYM, actually appears onscreen. How I Met Your Father‘s ensemble is further filled out by Chris Lowell, Tom Ainsley, Francia Raisa, Tien Tran, and Suraj Sharma.
With How I Met Your Father having just kicked off its run, Screen Rant recently got the chance to sit down with creators Berger and Isaac Aptaker to discuss the show. Though How I Met Your Father holds plenty of differences from HIMYM, the spirit of Ted still seems to live within Sophie. On the subject of how the two characters are alike – or different – Berger said this:
I think that there’s a big similarity there in that they both just have this optimism even though they’ve been knocked down a lot and Sophie will continue to get knocked down through the series. I think what’s so charming about both characters is that they just are not giving up. They believe that there’s a person out there for them and they’re going to keep dusting themselves off until they find that person but obviously it’s very exciting this time around for us to tell the story through a female point of view, which obviously differentiates it from Ted’s perspective.
It makes sense that both Ted and Sophie would have a romantic, optimistic spirit about them. In order for either show’s premise to work, it needs a main character who believes in love and the process of finding it. The 2022 setting of How I Met Your Father at least gives Sophie’s own romantic journey a twist Ted’s didn’t have, and approaching it from a woman’s perspective will further differentiate the two characters. Plus, as How I Met Your Father goes on, there will surely be new facets of Duff’s character that keep her apart from Ted.
It’s been confirmed that How I Met Your Father will hold connections to HIMYM, and some of them have already taken root. Whether Ted will ever get the chance to cross paths with his fellow hopeless romantic remains to be seen, but Berger and Aptaker did say HIMYM cameos are possible in the future. It would be interesting to have Ted and Sophie meet and compare notes on finding love, but that might be saved for a bit farther along in Sophie’s journey. Fans will have to wait and see.
How I Met Your Father releases new episodes Tuesdays on Hulu.
