How I Met Your Father Fans Theorize A Unique Twist For The Distant Finale

"How I Met Your Father" — the standalone sequel to the popular sitcom, "How I Met Your Mother"— premiered on Hulu in January of 2022. Created by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, the series follows Sophie (Hilary Duff), a hopeless romantic who navigates her love life beginning in 2022. In the year 2050, older Sophie (Kim Cattrall) tells her son how she met her father. Further, young Sophie's friend group is made up of impulsive Valentina (Francia Raisa); Valentina's new British boyfriend Charlie (Tom Ainsley); aspiring musician (and love interest to Sophie) Jesse (Chris Lowell); Jesse's adopted sister, the new-to-New-York and newly divorced Ellen (Tien Tran); and local bar owner Sid (Suraj Sharma).

Despite a very similar premise, "How I Met Your Father" set itself apart from its predecessor in the first episode when it revealed that one of four men that Sophie met in the pilot episode — Jesse, Sid, Charlie, or Sophie's seemingly perfect Tinder date Ian (Daniel Augustin) — is very likely the father of Sophie's son. In the future scene, Sophie concludes the episode by saying that that was how she met her son's father, to which her son responds that they didn't get together. Sophie then says, "Get together? Oh, that's a much longer story."

With the choices narrowed down to just four, fans have, of course, begun speculating which of the men is the father. And a few fans have a unique twist in mind for how they think the series will play out.

Amongst the fun of speculating about who the father will be in "How I Met Your Father," one fan took to Reddit to lay out their theory — u/MASOTTS thinks that the father will likely be Ian, but that Sophie will end up with someone else. They continued, "If it wasn't too close to the HIMYM ending, I would say that Jesse (if you consider him like Robin and Ian as the mother) is going to be the love of Sophie's life."

Most other fans in the comments ultimately agreed with the more unconventional theory. One fan, u/loverink, wrote, "One night stand? Coparenting only relationship? Accidentally getting in vitro with your [friend's] anonymous sperm at a clinic? True love? It's all on the table."

Further, u/LubieDobreJedzenie declared that they're just about sure that Sophie won't end up with the father of her kid. Another user, u/peon2, used a visual clue from the series to speculate further: "My theory, in part due to her not having a ring, is that she asks one of her friends to be a sperm donor. Whichever that turns out to be, he is their father, but Sophie isn't in a relationship with him."

However, some fans were less convinced by this theory because of its similarities to "How I Met Your Mother" (which saw its protagonist end up with someone who is not the kids' mother). One user, u/Potchoka, wrote, "I think the question is: are they willing to go down the same path? I [had] that same thought you have. But now, I find it too predictable."

In a March 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly, "How I Met Your Father" creators Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger discussed Season 1 of the show following the release of the season finale. One of the topics they discussed at length was their desire to separate themselves from their predecessor show in several ways.

Aptaker explained that they wanted to bring the familiar format of "HIMYM" but give it a female point of view and present an entirely new group of friends. He continued, "[We wanted to] find subtle ways to flip what they did in the original. In this one, we see the future Sophie played by Kim Cattrall, appearing on the screen instead of seeing the kids. There are lots of little ways we're upending what they did, but primarily we wanted this to stand on its own as a new story and not just retell what they did so excellently on the original." Further, the creators confirmed that the decision to have Cattrall appear on screen as future Sophie (instead of showing her kid, as "HIMYM" did) allowed for more diversity in the cast — without seeing Sophie's kid, we don't have any clue as to what ethnicity he is (and thus, the father is).

Further, the creators revealed that while they know who the father is, it isn't exactly set in stone. Aptaker said, "We don't put something on TV if we don't know where we think it's going because nothing keeps you like that. At the same time, we know this is hopefully a long run, and we're flexible to change our plan."