A little more than three years ago, CBS began plans to develop a spin-off to How I Met Your Mother, and it got surprisingly close to getting on the air before the network ultimately decided to pass. Since then, the project seemed dead in the water. But, as fate would have it, it’s now been resurrected with new writers and characters.

According to Deadline, Isaac Attacker and Elizabeth Berger from the surprisingly touching This Is Us will be overseeing the day-to-day operations of How I Met Your Father, while HIMYM creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas will serve as executive producers. This won’t be a traditional spin-off, however. The new series merely takes the same storytelling concept from the original, while focusing on characters separate from Marshall, Lilly, Robin, Ted, and Barney. The only thing it has in common with the previous spin-off attempt is the slightly altered name and concept of a woman telling the story of how she met her kids’ father.

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Image via CBS

It seems like it’s too good to be true, given how far the spin-off got before. It was once called How I Met Your Dad, starring Greta Gerwig as Sally Javits, and her casting made headlines for an indie actress breaking into the sitcom world. Other cast members would’ve been Tiya Sircar as Juliet, the female equivalent of Barney; Andrew Santino as Sally’s brother, Danny; Drew Tarver as Danny’s husband, Todd; Nick D’Agosto as Juliet’s BFF, Frank; Anders Holm as Sally’s husband, Gavin, who kicks her out of the house; and Meg Ryan as the narrator and an older version of Sally.

A pilot was ordered with a script that you can read about online.

The script for How I Met Your Father is reportedly still being written, so it’s too soon to tell whether this will actually get made. But This Is Us was pretty well received by audiences and earned a few Golden Globe nominations in the process. So, perhaps this good will from these writers will carry the long-awaited project to the green light.

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Image via CBS