show creators carter bays and craig thomas always intended for robin scherbatsky not to be the mother of ted mosby's children, stating that the show is about how "ted meets the perfect woman, and it’s [still] not his final love story." in various interviews, bays and thomas said that "a pretty famous actress" turned down the role of robin; they revealed in february 2014 that jennifer love hewitt had turned down the part. they then cast cobie smulders, an unknown. bays and thomas later said: "thank god we did for a million reasons... when ted’s seeing her for the first time, america’s seeing her for the first time — the intriguingness of that propelled the show going forward and kept the show alive."