It’s now been more than five years since Disney pulled the plug on Girl Meets World, with the spinoff wrapping on a massive reunion from as many Boy Meets World vets as possible. But something that many fans may not be clued in on is that the TGIF staple’s creator had plans for a completely different kind of offshoot series that would have happened during the family-friendly flagship’s initial run on ABC. It would have centered on Will Friedle’s Eric Matthews, with a proto-Friends vibe in mind to separate it from its predecessor, and it was a big enough goal that a bit of episode dialogue was written as a softballed lead-in to his potential exit.
Will Friedle talked about the groundwork that was laid for the Boy Meets World spinoff idea in the latest episode of the looking-back podcast Pod Meets World, which he co-hosts alongside former co-stars Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong. It was the second part of a fun Q&A sesh, with the question of note being “Which character do you think would have had the best spinoff?” And rather than answering that directly, Friedle got into the nitty gritty for what could have happened with Eric. (We’ll just assume his own character would have been his answer.) Here's how he started:
