'How I Met Your Father' Bosses Reveal Details of Barney's Life Post-'HIMYM'

The mid-season finale of How I Met Your Father (HIMYF) saw the welcome return of Neil Patrick Harris, who reprised his role as Barney Stinson from the original series How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM).

Harris' appearance in the spinoff was teased at the start of the second season when Hilary Duff's Sophie crashed into the back of Barney's car. Their encounter was cut short though, and it was teased that the story would return to them at another time.

Well, that time came in the mid-season finale, and HIMYF creators Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger have spoken about all the things that have happened to Barney since the end of the flagship series in 2014.

How I Met Your Father Bosses Reveal Details of Barney's Life Post-HIMYM

The Hulu show is a spinoff of the hit CBS sitcom, which ran from 2005 to 2014, with the new series retaining several links to How I Met Your Mother in its first season, including the surprise appearance of Cobie Smulders as Robin Scherbatsky.

In HIMYF's Season 2 mid-season finale, Sophie and Barney talk about life and about Sophie's search for her dad, something that the ladies' man is all too familiar with given he had a similar soul-searching trip in HIMYM.

Barney tells Sophie how she might not get what she is hoping for out of finding her father, but that he was happy to have his dad back in his life. He also took the time to show Sophie pictures of his daughter, Ellie, who was born at the end of HIMYM.

The encounter was just a taste of what Barney has been going through since the chapter closed on HIMYM. Showrunners Aptaker and Berger spoke to TVLine about the things they knew of the character that didn't make the episode.

Aptaker explained to the publication: "There was a little bit more that we shot that we took out of the [final] cut, but our thinking was that Barney is a little bit more of a family man now... maybe he's living the suburban dad life."

Berger agreed as she added: "There were a lot more details that unfortunately didn't live [on in the episode].

"We could have written this scene to go on for 45 minutes, but there were details about Sunday night dinner and all these things, and all of the routines and rituals that he has now as a family man. But yes, like Isaac said, we're nodding to the idea that his life has changed and brought him here."

Aptaker said that Barney's car is a "dad mobile" but it is still a "cool car" to the character because of his life with Ellie since his HIMYM days.

While the co-creators are keen to bring in different characters from the original series, they also said they don't want to add too much to their backstories that weren't already set out in Carter Bays and Craig Thomas' original series.

Berger said that they "want to make sure that we are being true to the mythology" but that it is up to Bays and Thomas to reveal exactly what else has been going on with the characters.

Regardless, Aptaker shared a fun little Easter Egg when he revealed to the publication that the pictures Barney shows of his daughter Ellie are actually images of Harris' daughter Harper, whom he shares with husband David Burtka.

How I Met Your Father will return to Hulu for the second half of its second season on Tuesday, May 23.