How I Met Your Mother Star Immediately Agreed to HIMYF Finale Cameo
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for HIMYF's season 1 finale.
Cobie Smulders was completely game for that How I Met Your Father season 1 finale cameo. Consisting of ten episodes, How I Met Your Father season 1 premiered on Hulu back in January. The series takes after the original How I Met Your Mother format, unfolding in two different timelines. In one, set in the year 2050, Kim Cattrall plays Sophie, who shares with her unseen son the full version of how she met his dad. And in the main timeline, Hilary Duff portrays the younger, more hopelessly romantic version of Sophie. Through season 1, Sophie draws closer to Jesse (Chris Lowell), but the finale carries quite a few surprises.
Afraid of how fast Jesse is falling for her, Sophie heads down to McLaren’s Pub. At that central HIMYM location, she meets Carl the Bartender (Joe Nieves) and Robin Scherbatsky (Smulders). It turns out Sophie is a huge fan of Robin, who is enjoying success as a big-time news reporter. The two characters have a talk, and alluding to her How I Met Your Mother arc, Robin offers Sophie some advice. She tells her, primarily, not to be scared and not to run away from what very well might be a great love story.
Speaking with TV Line in the aftermath of the How I Met Your Father season 1 finale, co-creator Isaac Aptaker and director Pam Fryman recall how excited Smulders was to come back to the role of Robin. Both say that her willingness to return spoke to the actor’s love for the character. Aptaker also discusses how he envisioned the scene as a passing of the torch between Smulders and Duff. Check out Fryman and Aptaker’s quotes below:
Fryman: [Original series co-creator] Craig [Thomas] reached out to Cobie first, and she was like, “When do you need me?” She said yes immediately. She couldn’t wait.
Aptaker: She had no sort of hesitation. She has so much love for Robin. We had that idea that she would be, sort of… passing the torch and giving some wisdom to the next generation, and I think she really loved the idea of that dynamic with Hilary.
Many fans have spoken of how Robin’s cameo works as a way of redeeming the lackluster How I Met Your Father season 1. Though she never mentions Ted by name, it’s clear to longtime fans who Robin is talking about as she waxes poetic about her past. It adds another layer to the divisive How I Met Your Mother ending and, more pressingly, gives audiences the impression that Sophie, Jesse, and the rest of their friends could someday have the same rich history as their predecessors.
In the eyes of the show’s detractors, How I Met Your Father is a long way off. Though it presents an interesting story and likable protagonists, it’s been dinged for lacking humor. More pleasant than outright hilarious, perhaps the sequel series will grow in the already-renewed season 2, and, hopefully, Robin crossing paths with Sophie will serve as the building block to a better-received second installment.
Source: TV Line