20th Century Fox Wants to Revive How I Met Your Mother: 3 Ways They Could Do It

If you've been mourning the loss of How I Met Your Mother ever since its final episode in 2014, you're in good company -- with none other than the head honcho of the studio that created it.

During a call with reporters on Monday, May 15, Fox Television Group's chairman and CEO Dana Walden admitted that she's just as anxious as anyone to see the HIMYM gang back together again, saying, "I hope we will have an opportunity to revisit these characters and tell these stories."

The problem is, three years after the series' conclusion, the cast of How I Met Your Mother have all moved on to bigger (if not better) things, from anchoring a new TV series (Josh Radnor) to working with the Avengers (Cobie Smulders) -- which makes the prospect of a reunion or spin-off series unlikely at best -- at least for now. But that doesn't mean we don't already have a few promising ideas for how to continue the story, either right this minute or down the road. Consider:

A Barney Stinson special

Let's imagine for a moment that the How I Met Your Mother crew takes a hint from Breaking Bad and launches a spin-off devoted to exploring the life and times of the series' most intriguing character before he ever joined the gang down at MacLaren's Pub. A really in-depth look at how Barney Stinson came to be... well, the way he is? I'd watch that.

Make it instrumental

via GIPHY

Speaking of backstories, there's one non-human character that definitely deserves its own special spin-off: the fabulous, mysterious, blue french horn. How does an instrument that looks like a Smurf penis come into this world, and what kind of adventures did it have before it wangled its way into the lives of Ted and Robin? An anthology series devoted to vignettes from the life and times of the horn would allow for lots of cameos from everyone's HIMYM faves, but also leave room to explore other facets of the show's universe. I mean, you know that horn has seen some stuff.

Do it X-Files style

Apart from the logistical challenge of getting its now-extremely-busy cast back together, there's also the issue of fan fatigue: How I Met Your Mother has barely been off the air long enough for people to miss it, let alone to be nostalgic for it. The obvious solution? Wait 15 years -- at which point the actors from the show will be exactly the right age for a reunion miniseries that shows us what happened after Ted showed up at Robin's door in the series finale. If we can just be patient until 2030, it'll be legen... wait for it... DARY.

How I Met Your Mother aired its series finale in March 2014.