Home Streaming How I Met Your Mother Star Makes Surprise Appearance in How I Met Your Father Season 2 Premiere

Hulu’s spinoff series brought back a major star from the original show, and the plan is to bring this character back in future episodes as well.

Hulu

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for How I Met Your Father.The second season of How I Met Your Father premiered on Hulu on Tuesday, and with the premiere episode came the surprise return of a fan favorite from the original show. First premiering on Hulu in January 2022, How I Met Your Father primarily follows an all-new cast of characters, though the spinoff series has featured characters from its parent show, How I Met Your Mother. The latest to join the fray is Neil Patrick Harris, who made a cameo in the premiere, “Cool and Chill,” as his How I Met Your Mother character Barney Stinson.
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The moment happens in the closing moments of the episode. Distracted by the phone while trying to get ahold of her mother (Paget Brewster), Sophie (Hilary Duff) mistakenly crashes into another vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle is revealed to be Barney himself, who surveys the damage done to his Audi while exasperating, “Dude!” As episodes are released weekly, fans will have to wait for the next episode to see what happens next, but this isn’t going to be a one-off appearance for Barney.

The show’s creators, Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, addressed the cameo in an interview with TVLine. It’s revealed just how easy it was to make the cameo happen, as NPH was very receptive to the idea and quick to get on board. As Barney’s behavior on the original series has come under scrutiny in the MeToo era, Berger admits this was of concern when his return to the role was discussed. She says it was important that they stay true to the character, even if he’ll be utilized in a different way for the spinoff.

“We wanted to bring him back, and we wanted him to be true to his character and to the fans that loved Barney so much. But we also wanted him to exist on our show, in our time, in a way that made sense, so all of that Zoom was spent talking about how we could blend all those things and service him and the show in the best way possible. We are very excited for people to see the way that turned out.”

On what could happen next, Aptaker teased:

“We’ll have to wait and see. 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.”

Related: How I Met Your Father Writers Think Casting John Corbett as Hilary Duff’s Love Interest is ‘Awesome’

Barney Will Return in More Episodes

Patrick Wymore/Hulu

In the first season, Cobie Smulders returned as Robin Scherbatsky, her character from How I Met Your Mother. Aptaker addressed how these kinds of special appearances can help offer some hints about what else is happening with the characters from How I Met Your Mother, even if they’re not the focus of the new series.

“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. 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.”

You can stream How I Met Your Father on Hulu.