The top-charting drama is getting a reboot, nine years after the original series drew to a close in 2012. The beloved TV series ran for six seasons, and developed a cult following, extending to its cast members Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, whose looks have been recreated time over on the steps of the MET. Filming of the recent reboot saw images released of the new cast sprawled across the steps of the MET, sparking widespread attention for what a Gossip Girl reboot might entail.
The show will be updated with a diverse cast that more accurately reflects New York.
Executive producer of the reboot and original series writer Joshua Safran spoke to Vulture on the new lineup of cast members. “This time around 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.”
The brand-new cast features breakout actors and actresses alongside rising stars.
While the series will still be narrated by the expressive and enigmatic Kristen Bell, the cast of the upcoming reboot will be entirely different from the original. Lead characters will include Emily Alyn Lind from Code Black, Whitney Peak from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Eli Brown from Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. Johnathan Fernandez of Lethal Weapon and Jason Gotay of Peter Pan Live! have also been cast as parts of the core ensemble, while Evan Mock, Thomas Doherty and Zion Moreno are amongst others that were photographed on the iconic steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, all sporting preppy takes on the uniforms of Constance Billard School for Girls and St. Jude’s.
The reboot will see a return of the original Gossip Girl creators and writers, alongside the original costume designer.
The Gossip Girl reboot will see the original series creators, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Save, returning to the series as executive producers. The original writer and executive producer, Joshua Safran, will also be returning, as well as the original costume designer Eric Daman, responsible for the renowned preppy aesthetic behind the original show.
The release has been pushed to 2021, and will premiere on HBO Max.
Due to delays surrounding the pandemic, the filming and subsequent release date of the series has been delayed. While you won’t be able to catch the Gossip Girl reboot on Netflix, it will be available on HBO Max, Warner Media’s new streaming service, when the series lands in 2021.
The show will take place eight years after Dan Humphrey was revealed as the unlikely face behind Gossip Girl and the website was shut down.
The reboot will focus on a new generation of New York private school teens, with Safran comparing the Gossip Girl realm to the Marvel Universe on Entertainment Tonight, revealing that the upcoming series will not be framed as a continuation nor a sequel of the original series. “It truly just is looking at a different angle.”
The Gossip Girl reboot will explore today’s rapidly-shifting social media landscape and its impact on an individual’s day-to-day life.
The producers will see a shift in the way in which the omni-present Gossip Girl infiltrates its way into the lives of others. “It didn’t really feel like a group of adults who were being controlled by Gossip Girl would make a lot of sense,” Schwartz, Savage and Safran told E! News. “It felt like there was something really interesting about this idea that we are all Gossip Girl now, in our own way, that we are all purveyors of our own social media surveillance state.”
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