Here Are The Best Theories About The Father On How I Met Your Father

One of the major reasons How I Met Your Mother was such a success was because it was a sitcom with an inherent mystery, so of course Hulu’s new sequel series How I Met Your Father is carrying that same torch. Obviously, the first thing you’re going to wonder when pressing play on the show is just who is the father on How I Met Your Father. Unlike HIMYM, the premiere episode actually narrowed down the choices, and the following episodes in the first season showed viewers some of the most likely candidates. So, let’s go over all the major theories.

Warning: Spoilers for How I Met Your Father’s Season 1 finale follow. In How I Met Your Father, our new Ted Mosby is Sophie (Hilary Duff), a hopeless romantic who finds a new group of friends by chance after a rough breakup. A lot happens in the series premiere, but the most important line comes at the end, when the grown-up version of Sophie (Kim Cattrall) tells her son, “That’s the night I met your father.” That line did something HIMYM never did: It confirmed the mysterious father appeared at some point in that first episode. Famously (or infamously, as most fans would argue), How I Met Your Mother ended with a character who wasn’t introduced until the eighth season being revealed as the mother. Clearly, this new show is not about to repeat that choice.

Now that fans already know the maybe-fathers, let’s go over which men are most likely to be Sophie’s baby daddy and soulmate, and which are least likely:

1. Jesse

I mean, duh. Jesse is clearly who the show is pushing to be Sophie’s perfect match, making him the obvious frontrunner to end up the father. However, fans shouldn’t be so certain — after all, HIMYM’s seemingly perfect pair of Ted and Robin ended up being a fake-out, so the same could happen with Sophie and Jesse. Although they got together toward the end of Season 1, it was quickly followed by a breakup, so the path ahead is definitely going to be rocky for these two.

2. Ian

If Jesse isn’t the father, then Ian is the next clearest candidate. Sophie obviously has chemistry with him, and the only obstacle in their relationship was distance — but that was resolved in the season finale when Ian finally returned from Australia. Viewers barely got to see Ian in Season 1, so now that he’s back, he is a major contender for Sophie’s heart.

3. Drew

Sophie’s only other romantic interest so far has been Drew, the practical but kind-hearted vice principal at the school Jesse teaches at. For a while, it seemed like Sophie and Drew were a great match, as they dated for most of Season 1, but Sophie felt he didn’t take her photography career seriously and dumped him. However, they may still have lingering feelings for one another that could lead to a rekindled romance down the line.

4. Sid

The new series started off with Sid getting engaged to his longtime girlfriend Hannah and they fully got married in the season finale, so it doesn’t seem too likely he’d get with Sophie. Then again, the marriage could end badly. After all, Sid and Hannah have bickered a lot, and long distance has put a significant strain on their relationship. Don’t count out a potential Sid and Sophie romance just yet.

5. Charlie

Of the show’s main men, Charlie feels like the least likely to be the father. Not only was he dating Sophie’s BFF, Valentina, at the start of the show, but he also just doesn’t seem to have the connection with Sophie that the others do. Then again, he and Valentina did break up in the Season 1 finale, but he probably wouldn’t move on with his ex’s best friend, right? Plus, Charlie has said he doesn’t want to ever have kids… which is kind of a requirement for being a father.

6. Evan

The only other guy featured in the series premiere is Sophie’s disastrous Tinder date, Evan. It would be kind of cute for the show to surprise-reveal him as the father in the end, given that he’s the first person fans see Sophie with and she was so repulsed by him, but it seems super unlikely. The biggest reason he’s effectively out of the running? Her date with Evan definitely didn’t take place on the night Sophie said she met the father. (She started texting with Ian right after the Evan date, and she and Ian had been texting for a while once they actually met up.) The only way this would work would be if he was also somewhere in the background at the bar or the airport on the night Sophie met the father.

7. Some Rando At The Bar Or Airport

I know I said the above guys (minus Drew) were the only ones featured in the first episode, but there were other men standing around in the background of Pemberton’s during Sid’s proposal and at the airport when Sophie chased after Ian. Fans can’t really count out the show pulling some cheeky twist in which Sophie’s soulmate was in the background the whole time. I mean, they kind of already did it with the reveal of Drew being in the bar on that night, so what’s to stop them from doing it again?

How I Met Your Father most likely won’t reveal the father’s identity until the series finale, so fans will just have to keep tuning in to each new episode on Hulu to pick up any new clues.