‘Lizzie McGuire’ Did Not Inspire ‘Hannah Montana,’ Says Show Creator

Hey now, this is not what dreams, or inspirations, are made of. Hannah Montana show creator Michael Poryes is setting the record straight on how the hit show, which premiered in 2006, was brought to life. Spoiler alert: It was not because of 2004’s The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

On Wednesday, Poryes told TMZ that Hannah Montana wasn’t inspired in “any shape or form” by its predecessor. He went on to explain how Disney pitched him on a show about a pop star and he formulated the concept of a teen leading a double life as both in his “small garage office in Los Angeles,” per TMZ. From there, lead star Miley Cyrus took Hannah Montana to a whole new echelon of success and became a pop star in her own right.

Poryes’ clarification comes after Hilary Duff, star of the hit Disney Channel show Lizzie McGuire, suggested that her show and its blockbuster film may have influenced the central plot of Hannah Montana in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. In The Lizzie McGuire Movie, the titular character finds herself at the center of international pop stardom as she discovers her Italian doppelgänger is a well-known singer in Rome. “I think that Disney knew they were tapping into something when this worked so well,” Duff said as she rewatched a clip from the movie. “I’m sure it was some source of inspiration,” she added.

Despite what Poryes says, Cyrus herself has credited Duff and Lizzie McGuire with inspiring her personally. “The only reason I wanted the [Hannah Montana] role was so I could do whatever you did,” she told her idol in a 2020 livestream. “Really I don’t think I gave a shit about being an actress or singer I was just going to copy you no matter what,” she said. “I would never be sitting here and being able to be a light if it wasn’t for you and you showing me how to do that.”