Neil Patrick Harris Brings Barney to How I Met Your Father

Neil Patrick Harris is reprising his role as ladies’ man Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Father, a queer-inclusive spin-off of the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Hulu dropped the announcement on Wednesday.

"Suit up, Barney Stinson’s back in the building," the streaming service posted on social media.

The out actor will appear on the two-episode mid-season finale of How I Met Your Father, which follows the character Sophie (Hilary Duff) leading up to her meeting the father of her son. Kim Cattrall plays an older version of Sophie in a framing story.

The episodes with Harris will air next Tuesday on Hulu. The series will then pause for a few weeks, resuming with new episodes each Tuesday beginning May 23 and concluding its second season with a two-part finale July 11.

Harris, who received four Emmy nominations for playing Barney, has been busy since How I Met Your Mother ended in 2014 after nine seasons. He has had guest roles on numerous TV shows, including the gay-themed It’s a Sin, and appeared as Count Olaf in A Series of Unfortunate Events from 2017 to 2019.

Recently, he starred in the sitcom Uncoupled, playing a gay man navigating the world of dating in the 2020s after the end of a long relationship. The show originally streamed on Netflix, but the service announced its cancellation in January after just one season. Showtime announced in February that it was picking up the series for a second season and possibly more, with the new iteration expected to be “edgier and racier,” as Deadline reported at the time.

In addition to Duff and Cattrall, the cast of How I Met Your Father includes Christopher Lowell, Francia Raisa, Tom Ainsley, Tien Tran, Suraj Sharma, Daniel Augustin, Ashley Reyes, and Josh Peck.