Not only is How I Met Your Dad being made this year – well, the pilot is anyway – it already has its lead too. According to E!News, Greta Gerwig has been cast for the upcoming pilot. Now, the show itself might be a bit ill-advised (How I Met Your Dad sounds just like the kind of project a network develops to squeeze out the very last bits of profit from a show about to end) but with actress/writer/director/producer/all-round Renaissance lady Gerwig attached to the project, there might be some life in the spin-off yet.

Greta Gerwig, Berlin International Film Festival
Gerwig's is the first casting to be announced. There might be hope for this project yet.

Gerwig has been chosen for the role of Sally – a sweet and free-spirited lady in her late twenties, whose biggest issue is that she’s afraid of growing up. Sounds painfully relatable for a large majority of twenty-somethings. There’s a twist from the original too – unlike Ted, Sally is already married at the beginning of the show. According to creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas, she and the audience will quickly realise that marriage isn’t really the right choice for Sally. So with the help of her friends, Sally will go on a quest, full of bad dates and (hopefully) hilarious antics.

Bays and Thomas, the creative team behind HIMYM, have teamed up with Up All Night’s Emily Spivey to write the pilot. Reports say that if the show gets picked up by CBS, then it will film in New York. The pilot, awaited by fans with some trepidation (spin-offs are controversial business for diehard fans of any show) will air in Fall 2014.

Greta Gerwig, Her Premiere
Let's hope this doesn't turn out to be another Joey situation.