Robbie Amell. Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Netflix
Robbie Amell laughed off that viral fan theory about Disney Channel’s Life With Derek — and Us Weekly cannot stop talking about it.
“Life With Derek is famously Disney’s show about siblings being in love with each other,” a BuzzFeed Canada journalist asked Robbie, 35, in a TikTok published over the weekend. Robbie elicited a rather large cackle before explaining that incest was not a part of the actual plot.
“That’s not what it’s actually about,” he hit back in jest. “That’s just what fans like to think it was about.”
The journalist replied, “I encourage you to go back.”
Looking back at where it all began! Many actors who have found award-winning success were originally connected to a Disney Channel role. Nicholas Braun, who appeared in Princess Protection Program in 2009, revealed that his experience on Disney Channel was hard to handle at the time. “The opportunities to be the lead of a Disney […]
Robbie’s cousin and Code 8 costar, Stephen Amell, was also part of the interview and asked, “This was on Disney?” It’s important to note that Stephen’s eyes were wide open when delivering the question, and it appeared to be his first time hearing about the incest theories.
“This one was in it, encouraging it,” the journalist replied, pointing at Robbie. “What was it like playing [Casey’s] non-brother boyfriend?”
@buzzfeedcanada
Remember when Robbie Amell starred as Cassie’s boyfriend Max in Disney’s ‘Life With Derek’? He certainly does! While sitting down with Stephen and Robbie Amell for their new movie Code 8: Part 2, we had to get Robbie’s thoughts on his first ever role on the controversial Disney show. #lifewithderek #robbieamell #code8 #code8part2 #netflix #fyp
♬ original sound – BuzzFeed Canada
Life With Derek was a Canadian TV show broadcast via Disney Channel in the United States from 2005 to 2009. Ashley Leggat starred as Casey McDonald while Michael Seater played the role of Derek Venturi. In the show, Casey’s mom married Derek’s dad, making them stepsiblings. However, viewers were convinced there was an underlying sexual tension between the two.
Robbie, for his part, played Casey’s boyfriend Max Miller in the show.
“I just wanted her and Derek to get together so badly, like everyone else on the show,” Robbie joked to BuzzFeed Canada in the recent interview. “I actually loved it. It was great, it was my first real job. It was amazing and terrifying.”
Robbie recalled his “first table read ever,” where he “shook every single person’s hand” before they started.
He referred to himself as “the biggest naïve 16-year-old kid booking a job.” Robbie has since gone on to have a long career with roles in True Jackson, VP, The Tomorrow People, The Flash, The Duff and Upload, among others.
Taking a dip into the Disney dating pool. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas, Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas and plenty of other iconic ‘00s couples first found love with a little help from the Mouse. “I could not have been more grateful to have that relationship at the time,” Hudgens […]
Meanwhile, Life With Derek officially came to an end in 2009, but most of the original cast reunited for the 2022 Life With Luca spinoff movie. Canadian media company WildBrain brought the stars together once again for the film, which followed Casey and Derek, who are now parents to their own set of teenagers. (Despite the viral theories, the stepsiblings did not have kids together.)
Casey is now a married lawyer who has three kids while Derek is a single dad of one.
“The movie picks up fifteen years later and follows Derek and Casey as they each navigate parenthood and raise distinctly different teenagers,” the movie’s official logline read. “Both Derek and Casey spontaneously decide to surprise their own parents at their recently constructed ‘forever home’ in rural Ontario but encounter each other instead.”
