‘How I Met Your Father’ makers confirm more scenes from Neil Patrick Harris after cameo

Neil Patrick Harris surprised fans with a cameo appearance during the second season premiere of How I Met Your Father.

Harris, played Barney Stinson during all nine seasons of the original series, How I Met Your Mother. After Cobie Smulders dropped by in the freshman finale to offer Sophie life advice, the season 2 premiere – which was released Tuesday, January 24, 2023, on Hulu – welcomed Harris, per Entertainment Tonight.

Harris appeared in the closing minutes of the episode, after Sophie (Hilary Duff) confessed to her best friend, Valentina (Francia Raisa), that she was hitting “rock bottom” when it came to her romantic life. Up until that point, Sophie was suffering from the romance blues after failing to strike lightning in a bottle with three guys in less than 48 hours.

Soon after, Sophie got behind the wheel and was attempting to reach her mother over the phone as she desperately lamented over her dating woes and the fact that she may be dating her dad. It was at that moment that she got into a minor car accident with another vehicle.

According to an interview with TVLine, the How I Met Your Father showrunners, Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker, revealed Harris’ surprise appearance won’t be the only time he’ll be on the Hulu spinoff. They confirmed that the premiere cameo is just the start of Barney’s adventures.

“Whenever we talk about bringing back a member of the original crew, you want it to serve two purposes: You want to give some titbits 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 said.

“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.”

Moreover, another HIMYM star Josh Radnor, who played Ted Mosby in the original show, shared with Newsweek that he’s communicated with Duff about possibly appearing on the show.

“I had a really sweet email exchange with Hilary Duff,” he said in the interview. “We kind of went back and forth about being the ‘I’ on How I Met Your dot dot dot.”

“[Hilary] has said publicly, she'd love to have me on, so I wouldn't turn down an invitation,” Radnor said, leaving the door open.