After co-writing and starring in the indie sensation Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig has signed up for the lead role in CBS’s How I Met Your Dad, a spin-off of the long-running sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
How I Met Your Dad will be executive produced by Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, as well as by Up All Night creator Emily Spivey. As Deadline tells it, Gerwig insisted on significant creative control as a condition for signing on to the project. She will serve as a producer and a writer for the show, which was greenlit upon news of her participation. Gerwig also moved the series’ shooting location from LA to New York. Some are comparing Gerwig’s move to the small screen to Zooey Deschanel brilliant-in-retrospect decision to headline Fox’s New Girl.
Variety notes that Gerwig “will play Sally, a female Peter Pan who is on the verge of breaking up with her husband after less than a year of marriage.”