'How I Met Your Mother' Star Returns in Spinoff 'How I Met Your Father'
It's going to be legen...wait for it...dary!
Neil Patrick Harris is suiting up once again.
An original cast member on How I Met Your Mother, Harris is making a comeback in the current season of spinoff series How I Met Your Father, and it's going to be—well, legendary.
The 49-year-old actor starred on the original hit sitcom as the charming, suit-wearing schemer Barney Stinson, and now he's reprising the famous Emmy-nominated role nearly nine years after the show ended in 2014.
During the premiere episode of How I Met Your Father Season 2—which aired on Tuesday, Jan. 24—Harris made a surprise cameo, appearing in a scene with Sophie (Hilary Duff) after she accidentally crashes into his luxury car.
While future Sophie (Kim Cattrall) is retelling the story to her son, she is asked who the man from the fender bender was. She replies, "We'll get there soon enough," leaving fans to believe that Barney will be playing a significant role in the show's plot line.
In an interview with TV Line, creators Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger revealed their hopes for bringing back another OG cast member (Cobie Smulders also reprised her role as Robin Scherbatsky in HIMYF Season 1).
"Whenever we talk about bringing back a member of the original crew, you want it to serve two purposes: You want to give some tidbits about what is going on in their lives, where they’ve landed and where they’re at, but it’s also about how they impact the How I Met Your Father story and how they send one of our characters in a new, unexpected direction," Aptaker explained. "Similar to Robin last year, we’ll learn some more about where Barney’s at, but it’ll also have a major impact on the trajectory, and main narrative, of our season."
He later discussed Harris' appearance in Tuesday's premiere episode, adding, "That car crash becomes a major turning point in Sophie’s life and in her season-long arc. Once we catch up to that, I think people will be pleasantly surprised by how her story turns via Barney."
It looks like fans will just have to wait and see what happens—challenge accepted!
How I Met Your Father Season 2 is currently airing new episodes every Tuesday on Hulu.