Josh Peck Discusses Possibly Being the Dad in "How I Met Your Father": "I Sure Do Hope"

Josh Peck has no idea if he's the father on "How I Met Your Father" — and even if he did, he wouldn't say. "If I did know and I leaked it, literally, guys in suits would descend and cart me off in some sort of van," he tells POPSUGAR. Despite not knowing how it all ends, Peck knows what he wants to happen. "I sure do hope," he says when asked if he'd like to be the father of Hilary Duff's son on the show.

In the "How I Met Your Mother" spinoff, Peck plays Drew, a vice principal at an elementary school where Chris (Jesse Lowell) works. Drew dates Duff's character Sophie throughout the first season, making him — along with Ian (Daniel Augustin), Jesse, Sid (Suraj Sharma), Charlie (Tom Ainsley), and even Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) — into a top contender for the father of Sophie's son. The pair split up at the end of season one, though, and many fans thought Drew's time on the show was over, but he reappears in season two, which premiered on Jan. 24, along with a number of other beloved characters from the franchise.

Peck shares that he also thought his stint on the show was done after the first season, though he's thrilled to still be in the running. "I'm so glad," he says. "I was sort of the love interest in the first season, and then when I got broken up with, I literally told everyone on set, 'Thank you for having me. I'm sorry I'll never see you again.' And then they brought me back for season two. So, I think anything's possible for Drew."

While his character may or may not be the father of Sophie's child, Peck himself is a real-life dad of two. He and his wife Paige O'Brien welcomed their first child, a boy named Max Milo, in 2019, and their second, another boy named Shai Miller, arrived in October 2022. "I know that when we were new parents, a lot of people liked to scare us and tell us how we'll never sleep again, or that we've had the last brunch we'll ever have for the rest of our lives because there's just no time anymore," he told POPSUGAR while promoting a partnership with Enfamil Family Beginnings. "But the reality is that being a parent is awesome."

The first half of "How I Met Your Father" season two is now streaming on Hulu, with the second half premiering on May 23.