Hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Motherremains an Internet hot topic nearly a decade after its controversial conclusion, with various cast and crew members teasing remakes, reboots, and reunions. A fan-made poster represents the latest installment of those rumors, pitching a harsh but undeniably accurate title for a remake of the beloved series.
The series finale of How I Met Your Mother in 2015 has been immortalized as one of the greatest television fumbles of all time, only recently superseded by the ending of Game of Thrones in 2019. The show recounts the romantic escapades of Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) to his future children, teasing the eventual reveal of the eponymous mother from the very first episode. But How I Met Your Mother‘s highly anticipated conclusion after nine seasons shows Ted to be a widower who is just coming to terms with romantic feelings for his on-again off-again partner and best friend throughout the show, Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders).
A poster by @howimetyourmotheer on Instagram represents just how absurd the show’s ending felt for fans who had waited a decade for Ted’s happy ending. The poster features a promotional still of the main cast, which includes Radnor and Smulders alongside Jason Segal, Neil Patrick Harris, and Alyson Hannigan, but changes the show’s title of How I Met Your Mother to something that more appropriately encapsulates viewers’ mixed feelings about the series finale. You can check out the poster below:
A Truly Legend…(wait for it)…dary Sitcom
Despite its divisive finale, calls for a How I Met Your Mother reboot or remake are as strong as ever. A spinoff show entitled How I Met Your Father ran for two seasons before being canceled in 2023, purportedly due to low viewership compared to the original series. Since then,
How I Met Your Mother creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have not indicated any plans to revive the show, but fans’ continued interest may persuade them to eventually return. Even actress Alyson Hannigan, who played one of Ted’s closest friends throughout the show, Lily Aldrin, has expressed her continued interest in How I Met Your Mother, suggesting that a potential reboot could focus on the rest of the gang correcting Ted’s retelling of his romantic hijinks.
However, series creators Bays and Thomas are likely well aware that a potential reboot of How I Met Your Mother has almost impossibly high standards. The show has been cemented in pop culture ever since its debut, contributing important theories like Barney Stinson’s (Neil Patrick Harris) Hot/Crazy Scale, or timeless gags like the Slap Bet, to viewers’ everyday vernacular. Though it would be undeniably cathartic to see the How I Met Your Mother cast reunited in a scenario that heals the wounds of the original series finale, the truth is that the CBS sitcom is one-of-a-kind, and fans would probably fare better turning the TV off at the end of season 9, episode 22, and maybe eating a sandwich for good measure.