News broke on July 17, 2019 that a Gossip Girl reboot was in the works. Over the past year and a half, fans have been on the edges of their seats in anticipation of the show’s estimated 2021 release. Here’s the official logline, per Deadline:
“Eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl. The prestige series will address just how much social media—and the landscape of New York itself—has changed in the intervening years.”
The reboot will land on HBO Max sometime in 2021.
Gossip Girl is making its comeback on WarnerMedia’s streaming service, HBO Max. According to Deadline, the reimagined series will take place over the course of 10 hour-long episodes. Joshua Safran, original Gossip Girl writer and executive producer, has returned to spearhead the new iteration.
The new cast is just as iconic.
On January 1, the official Gossip Girl Instagram page introduced the new characters with a series of stunning profiles. Among the new generation of Upper East Siders are Julien Calloway, Monet de Haan, Luna La, Max Wolfe, Audrey Hope, Kate Keller, Otto “Obie” Bergmann IV, Akeno “Aki” Menzies and Zoya Lott.
Take a look at these behind-the-scenes shots.
Expect a cameo or two from original cast members.
In July 2019, executive producer Josh Schwartz told press: “We’ve reached out to all of them to let them know it was happening, and we’d love for them to be involved if they want to be involved, but certainly didn’t want to make it contingent upon [them being involved]. They played these characters for six years, and if they felt like they were good with that, we want to respect that, but obviously…it would be great to see them again.”
Chace Crawford (Nate) revealed his mixed feelings to Digital Spy in October 2019: “It is funny to me, it’s almost become a classic now. It probably goes to show you that we shouldn’t be redoing it. I can’t be in high school anymore. That’s the thing. I don’t even know what they would do. For me personally, I would love to see everybody again and I loved everybody and I would love to work with everybody, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily a reality.”
Blake Lively shared similar sentiments with Variety in 2017: “I’m looking to do something that I haven’t done yet, not something that I did. But would I do that? Who knows—if it was good, if it made sense. We had so much fun shooting and living and working in New York City.”
According to Glamour, Safran has made it clear that the new generation of characters will not be the children of the old crew. However, he says “the universe still exists”… whatever that means. Kristen Bell is rumored to return as the voice of Gossip Girl.
Constance Billard will remain the series’ backdrop.
“It’s the same high school, so we’re back at Constance Billard. We are looking at a group of friends in their junior year. Those pieces are the same. They’re still in the uniforms,” Safran told E.T. in December. “Not everyone lives on the Upper East Side, though. Brooklyn’s not the bad place to live. Brooklyn’s probably cooler in the new version than Manhattan, ’cause it is in some places. Other than that, it has the DNA of the original.”
Diversity is a priority this time around.
“There was not a lot of representation the first time,” Safran said. “So this time the leads are nonwhite. There’s a lot of queer content on this show. It is very much dealing with the way the world looks now, where wealth and privilege come from, and how you handle that. The thing I can’t say is there is a twist, and that all relates to the twist.”
XOXO.