To some TV fans, Alyson Hannigan will always be the magical Willow Rosenberg, while others know her best as How I Met Your Mother's Lily. Now it seems she's headed back to television for a very different role, though it does involve magic...
Penn & Teller: Fool Us is a magic competition series airing on The CW, in which magicians attempt to fool the famed magic duo. If Penn & Teller can’t figure out how the trick is performed, then the contestant wins a trip to Las Vegas to open for the duo’s world famous magic show. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Alyson Hannigan will be joining Season 3, taking over hosting duties from British TV personality Jonathan Ross. Penn & Teller: Fool Us will air its third season sometime this summer.
This is Alyson Hannigan’s first major on-screen role since How I Met Your Mother ended in 2014. Since the finale, she’s guest starred in minor roles on CBS’ The McCarthys and provided her voice on Disney Junior’s Sofia the First, but this will be the HIMYM stars return for a more prominent role.
This seems like a great fit for Alyson Hannigan. While Penn & Teller: Fool Us will be her first time hosting a show, she’s no slouch when it comes to comedy. She’s had plenty of experience delivering jokes, having played Lily Aldrin on CBS’ smash hit comedy How I met Your Mother for 9 seasons where she held her own against comedy superstars Jason Segel (Freaks and Geeks, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Neil Patrick Harris (Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Starship Troopers). She’s also been a staple in the American Pie films as the kinky band geek, Michelle Flaherty.
As Buffy fans already know, this is technically not Alyson Hannigan’s first time dealing with magic. She first rose to prominence in 1997 when she starred on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which was created by The Avengers writer/director and all around nerd king Joss Whedon) in which she played fan favorite Willow, a witch who would use her magic to help title character Buffy fight all sorts of supernatural baddies. She’s probably most remembered for falling in love with another witch and becoming one of the first onscreen lesbian couples. Willow had some of the best character arcs of the series, having to come to terms with her ever-growing magical powers and the consequences of using them. Hopefully, Hannigan will remember those lessons while dealing with Penn & Teller.
