How I Met Your Mother Season 9: John Lithgow to Return as Barney's Dad For the Big Wedding

Guess who's back? CBS has officially confirmed that actor John Lithgow will be returning in How I Met Your Mother Season 9 as Neil Patrick Harris's dad, Jerry Whitaker. The 67-year-old award-winning actor takes part in the wedding storyline of his son, Barney Stinson, to Cobie Smulder's character Robin Scherbatsky.

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The TV network CBS made the announcement on early Monday about the details for the upcoming season finale. How I Met Your Mother Season 9 will be centering on the marriage of two main characters of the comedy series.

"Everyone is heading off to this wedding, and we sort of have this new framework. We want to stress the word 'framework,' because we don't want people to think there will be four hours of flower arranging. We're always going to be flashing back and flashing forward. Decades will span over the course of this weekend," co-creator Carter Bays revealed regarding the final season's story format.

Mr Lithgow, who appeared twice on the show in 2011, will come back for an episode of Season 9 to meet up once more with his estranged son Barney. The highly praised actor became famous for his stint in the NBC series "3^rd Rock from the Sun" where he won an Emmy Award for his outstanding performance.

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The casting team of HIMYM Season 9 has lined up as well more celebrity guest stars making a comeback on the sitcom for the wedding of Barney and Robin such as Sherri Shepherd, Wayne Brady and Ellie Kemper. In the mean time, fans will have no choice but to patiently wait until September 23 when the final season of "How I Met Your Mother" officially premieres on CBS with a special one-hour episode.