Fans of the 2010 Disney Channel show Good Luck Charlie were pleasantly surprised to learn the show’s star, Bridgit Mendler, is now a Harvard graduate and has recently become a CEO. However, the exciting news quickly took a strange turn when netizens became convinced Mendler was a time traveler.
Back in the early 2000s, Mendler was one of Disney Channel’s biggest stars. Her most famous role was as Teddy Duncan in Good Luck Charlie from 2010–2014. She also starred in Wizards of Waverly Place and Lemonade Mouth. However, her last acting role was in 2019. For the past five years, she has largely stayed out of the spotlight. It wasn’t until this year that she returned to social media to give her followers an update on the new path her life has taken.
Mendler took to X to announce that she is now the CEO of Northwood Space, a startup centered on advancing satellite technology and creating a “data highway between Earth and space.” She is also the co-founder of the company and revealed that it has raised over $6.3 million in funding. Mendler is more than qualified for the role as she delved into her education after leaving her Disney days behind. She now holds a Ph.D. from MIT and a J.D. from Harvard University.
The exciting news didn’t end there. She also revealed she and her husband, Griffin Cleverly, are now parents after adopting a four-year-old child.
As a singer, actress, MIT and Harvard graduate, space startup CEO, and mother, one would think Mendler has quite enough titles stacked up. However, people of the internet believe she has also added “time traveler” to that impressive list.
Bridgit Mendler time travel conspiracy theory explained
Given her exciting announcements, Mendler has been a popular topic of conversation recently. Public discourse took a weird turn, though, when a TikToker’s conspiracy theory resurfaced claiming Mendler is the first-ever time traveler.
The conspiracy theory seems to have started with TikToker @jcubedhax, who shared the theory in a four-part video series. In the first video, posted last year, the user claimed that Mendler is the first confirmed time traveler in history. The first piece of evidence is that Mendler once had “time travel??” included in her X bio among her many other achievements, though it has since been removed.
The user also cited the unusually long gaps in Mender’s X posting history and the fact that she doesn’t seem to age much as further evidence. Then, the user dropped quite the outlandish theory that Mendler’s last acting role, Merry Happy Whatever, was actually her first role. Due to it allegedly being one of Mendler’s less notable roles, the user theorized that Mendler went back in time to star in Good Luck Charlie and Lemonade Mouth to get a better kickstart to her career.
In Part 2, the theory gets even more outlandish as the user claims Mendler’s role in The Clique was actually played by her future daughter, who hasn’t been born yet. The only “evidence” is that Mendler liked a tweet about time travel and tweeted “hello world” once.
Part 3 suggests that the Wizards of Waverly Place reboot further confirmed that Mendler is a time traveler, suggesting the actress went back in time to get a role on the original show so she could be in the reboot. Meanwhile, Part 4 claims the space CEO news further confirmed her dabblings in space and time.
Most viewers watching these videos are hearing a whole lot of, well, nothing. The TikToker does provide a lot of interesting claims but has zero evidence to back them up. Mendler has a future daughter who is absolutely identical to her and starred in The Clique pretending to be her past mom, and no one noticed? Why would Mendler go back in time to ramp up her acting career when she’s literally a CEO and may never return to acting? How does this TikToker just know that Merry Happy Whatever was the actress’s first role?
Granted, Mendler doesn’t seem to age much, and her recent accomplishments are extraordinary without time travel. It’s also quite strange these theories arose before the space CEO development happened. Of course, Mendler is far from the only celebrity who has ever been noted for their ageless appearance. Meanwhile, Mendler attending both MIT and Harvard and earning a Ph.D. and J.D. is definitely reminiscent of Hermione Granger time traveling to manage her hectic class schedule. However, a simpler explanation is that Mendler is an extremely intelligent and capable woman. Still, some internet users have opted for the time travel explanation instead.
One does have to hand it to @jcubedhax for being one hell of a storyteller and speaking with such conviction and passion. Additionally, if anyone does invent time travel, one has to admit Mendler would be a strong candidate. Seemingly out of nowhere, she became one of the country’s most accomplished 30-year-olds and her ambition seems to know no bounds. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence that she is a time traveler … at least not yet.
(featured image: Tommaso Boddi / Getty)
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]