One clever How I Met Your Father fan theory justifies the perfect way for HIMYM’s Barney Stinson to return in a cameo. Set nearly a decade after How I Met Your Mother’s ending, How I Met Your Father introduces a twist on the original’s storytelling formula with a modern landscape. Just as Ted’s story to his children about how he met their mother featured plenty of zany interactions with characters and memorable side stories, Sophie’s (Hilary Duff) story to her son about how she met his father is filled with accounts of notable figures, including a few returning faces from How I Met Your Mother.
When How I Met Your Father was first announced, one of the biggest questions about the spinoff was how it would connect to the original series. As such, cameos from HIMYM’s main five characters were widely speculated about, with Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) seeming like the easiest connection. However, How I Met Your Father season 1 surprised audiences with four cameos from HIMYM characters, including that of Ted’s endgame romantic interest Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders). Alongside Robin, George “The Captain” Van Smoot (Kyle MacLachlan), Becky (Laura Bell Bundy), and MacLaren’s Pub bartender Carl (Joe Nieves) made notable appearances in How I Met Your Father season 1.
Considering Robin’s massive cameo in How I Met Your Father’s season 1 finale had an incredible impact on not just Sophie’s love story but also the justification of her own, it’s expected that the rest of the main HIMYM characters will also return for the spinoff. While speculation about how Barney could appear in How I Met Your Father has largely been connected to his womanizing past in HIMYM, one genius fan theory (via Reddit) suggests his return would instead follow up on his ending as a doting father. In HIMYM’s finale, Barney welcomed a daughter named Ellie in the year 2020 with “Number 31,” the last one-night stand of his Perfect Month. Rather than returning to his womanizing ways in How I Met Your Father's story, the fan theory makes Barney's HIMYM ending even better by connecting his possible cameo to his daughter.
How Fans Originally Expected Barney Would Return In HIMYF
The most popular theory about how Barney would return in How I Met Your Father suggested that he would be a one-night stand with Sophie. The beginning of How I Met Your Father sees Sophie jump into the modern dating world through apps like Tinder, which a HIMYM-era Barney Stinson would have certainly had a profile on (or several). Some even expected that if Barney appeared in How I Met Your Father as one of Sophie’s hook-ups, he would be the last one-night stand before she decided to put casual dating behind her and search for “the one.” Another theory about Barney’s How I Met Your Father cameo played on the HIMYM season 9 episode “Sunrise,” in which he taught two young guys how to live like himself. Before How I Met Your Father season 1 premiered, some believed Barney would have passed the Playbook over to one of the new male characters.
One of the wilder ways in which fans expected Barney to appear in How I Met Your Father made his relationship with Sophie more bizarre. It was theorized that Barney would be Sophie’s dad, who has never been seen and whose name isn’t mentioned in How I Met Your Father. This return would have meant that Barney had a one-night stand with Sophie’s mom, Lori, long before HIMYM’s timeline. However, this theory was debunked due to the fact that Sophie turns 30 in How I Met Your Father season 1, placing her birth year in 1992, and Barney didn’t lose his virginity until he was 23, which would have been around 1999. If he were to cameo in How I Met Your Father, Barney could also easily encounter some of the characters in MacLaren’s like Robin did with Sophie, but one fan theory has a far more fitting set-up for his return.
HIMYF Fan Theory Explained – Barney Makes A Parenting Playbook In His Cameo
According to a genius fan theory, Barney could return in How I Met Your Father as he blogs about a bro-parenting Playbook, a variation of his previous Playbook for picking up women. In the theory, How I Met Your Father shows Barney sitting at his computer as he types out a new entry on his blog, describing a new play he’s working on titled “The Fake Sleeper.” The wording of the blog would first lead audiences to believe that it’s another revolting ploy to land a hook-up by pretending to fall asleep.
However, the How I Met Your Father fan theory introduces a twist when a baby is heard crying from the other room, revealing that the “play” was actually a trick to get his baby daughter to fall asleep. Rather than continuing his blog on how to pick up women, Barney has started a blog and Playbook for bros who are fathers that describes the best parenting tricks. The theory also suggests that Barney has continued to merchandise his ideas, which includes a “Bro Bib” that looks like a suit.
While the How I Met Your Father fan theory gives Barney a fitting return in the spinoff, it’s unclear how his cameo would connect to the new characters. None of How I Met Your Father’s characters are parents, and it doesn’t seem like any of them will be having kids soon. Perhaps Jesse and Sid are tasked with babysitting for the day in one of the episodes and are desperately looking for a way to make the child fall asleep. This could lead the character to take to the internet and happen upon a helpful parenting blog for fathers, with the series then cutting to HIMYM’s Barney Stinson writing the entry.
HIMYF Theory Makes Barney’s HIMYM Ending Even Better
Compared to the predictions that made Barney’s How I Met Your Father cameo a continuation of his manipulative playboy persona, this Reddit fan theory actually makes his HIMYM ending even more impactful. After he and Robin got a divorce in HIMYM's future timeline, Barney briefly returned to his womanizing ways, but this all stopped once he had his daughter Ellie, who he promised to love and care for above anything else in this world. The moment in which Barney holds his daughter for the first time in HIMYM’s season 9 finale signaled a change for the better in his character, so it would be a mistake to have him revert to his old persona only two years later in How I Met Your Father.
By having Barney’s cameo in How I Met Your Father connect to his daughter, the spinoff would prove that Neil Patrick Harris’ character has stuck to his word after HIMYM’s ending. He would still be prioritizing parenting but also maintains the essential Barney charm by writing a Playbook and blogging. Being a parent changes people, and How I Met Your Father’s cameo theory would finally show how Barney acts as an attentive father to his daughter.