‘How I Met Your Father’: [Spoiler] From ‘HIMYM’ in Season 2 Premiere — Episode 1

The following comprises spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of How I Met Your Father.

And you thought Cobie Smulders’ return as Robin Scherbatsky was the largest shock How I Met Your Father had up its sleeve.

Tuesday’s premiere marked the primary look (key phrase being first) by How I Met Your Mother‘s Neil Patrick Harris, who’s reprising his Emmy-nominated position as Barney Stinson in Season 2 of the Hulu sequel sequence.

In the episode, Future Sophie begins to inform her son the story of how she hit “rock bottom.” We then in the reduction of to the current timeline — albeit later in the 12 months — to search out 30-year-old Sophie driving via the suburbs, frantically attempting to make contact with Lori. “Mom, please call me back,” she says. “I think I’m dating my dad!” Wait, what??

Distracted, Sophie will get right into a fender bender. She will get out to evaluate the harm, and that’s once we uncover that the car she dinged belongs to Barney. “Dude!” he exclaims, because the bumper falls off the again of his Audi (whose license plate reads “LGNDRY”). And that’s all we get of Barney for now.

An episode rely for Harris’ encore is being stored underneath wraps, however we will affirm that NPH’s cameo was solely an introduction, and we’ll see extra of Barney sooner or later throughout HIMYF‘s supersized second season of 20 episodes.

Below, HIMYF creators Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger talk about Harris’ return to the franchise, rule out a doable connection between the 2 reveals, and recommend how one other upcoming visitor star could also be chargeable for Barney and Sophie crossing paths.

(*1*)TVLINE | How lengthy had NPH’s return been in the works?
BERGER | As quickly as we began breaking our season, all of us obtained very excited in regards to the concept of getting him return. Thankfully, his relationship with [HIMYM and HIMYF director/executive producer] Pamela Fryman is so phenomenal that she was capable of attain out to him and get a really fast, “Let’s talk about it.”
APTAKER | She officiated his marriage ceremony!
BERGER | We did a inventive Zoom with him to speak about what we have been pondering, and that was it. He was recreation, which was so unimaginable for us. It was the easiest way we might think about coming again.
APTAKER | He additionally has a bit little bit of a preexisting relationship with Hilary Duff. They related when the present launched final 12 months, and he or she did an interview with him for his e-newsletter Wondercade, so he was actually excited to get to come back meet her and work together with her. It was superior to see the 2 of them bond over changing into tv stars at such an early age, then fronting a How I Met… sequence.

TVLINE | In that interview, NPH prompt that the Barnacle’s “antics” wouldn’t fly in the #MeToo period, and HIMYF can be higher off with out him. Were these considerations addressed throughout that preliminary Zoom?
BERGER | Absolutely. We wished to convey him again, and we wished him to be true to his character and to the followers that liked Barney a lot. But we additionally wished him to exist on our present, in our time, in a approach that made sense, so all of that Zoom was spent speaking about how we might mix all these issues and repair him and the present in the easiest way doable. We are very excited for individuals to see the way in which that turned out.

TVLINE | We know from How I Met Your Mother that Barney was born in 1975, which suggests he would have been simply 17 years outdated when Sophie was born in 1992. We additionally know that Barney was a late bloomer who misplaced his virginity at 23. Assuming nothing’s been retconned, can we go forward and rule him out as Sophie’s dad?
APTAKER | I assume so. We’re not telling a teen dad story. I assume given Lori’s age, that’d turn out to be a fairly uncomfortable story.
BERGER | Yeah. I don’t assume it’s essential to be a mathematician, solely a HIMYM fan, to achieve the conclusion you reached. [Laughs]

TVLINE | Hey, you by no means know! You might have modified a couple of particulars and chalked it as much as Ted being an unreliable narrator.
BERGER | True!

TVLINE | At this level in the timeline, Barney is already divorced from Robin and pop to Ellie. Will we study extra about his life after the occasions of the HIMYM finale?
APTAKER | Whenever we discuss bringing again a member of the unique crew, you need it to serve two functions: You need to give some tidbits about what’s going on in their lives, the place they’ve landed and the place they’re at, nevertheless it’s additionally about how they impression the How I Met Your Father story, and the way they ship certainly one of our characters in a brand new, sudden path. Similar to Robin final 12 months, we’ll study some extra about the place Barney’s at, nevertheless it’ll even have a significant impression on the trajectory, and major narrative, of our season.

TVLINE | The Season 2 trailer revealed a May-December romance between Sophie and a brand new character performed by John Corbett. Does Sophie’s sudden curiosity in older males lead her to Barney?
BERGER | There is an opportunity that it parlays into the Barney storyline, however the way in which that it does, I assume, may be very sudden and stunning.

TVLINE | How lengthy will it’s earlier than we see Barney once more?
APTAKER | We’ll have to attend and see. That automobile crash turns into a significant turning level in Sophie’s life and in her season-long arc. Once we catch as much as that, I assume individuals will probably be pleasantly stunned by how her story turns through Barney.