The Gossip Girl Reboot Will Follow A New Generation Of Teens

Hey there Upper East Siders. Gossip Girl here. And I have the biggest news ever. Well, maybe not the “biggest” news, but a piece of news nonetheless…

Now that the Gossip Girl reboot is officially a go at HBO Max, co-creators Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz have begun talking about how the new series will differ from the original. Specifically, the presence of Gossip Girl, the semi-anonymous rumor blog that tracked and propelled the drama between rich New York City teens over six seasons of the hit CW show. “We felt there was something interesting that we are all ‘gossip girl’ in our own way and how that’s evolved, morphed and mutated,” said Schwartz at a TCA panel. Joshua Safran, a writer on the original series and (seemingly) head writer of the reboot, reportedly wants to “subvert the paradigm of the original,” according to Deadline. The new series will be set eight years after, and in the same universe as, the original. Blogs have given way to social media; now, everyone is building their online reputation all the time.

And it will definitely stay a teen show. “We felt that a version with just our cast grown up, regardless of the challenges of getting those actors, didn’t feel like a group of adults controlled by ‘gossip girl’ made much sense,” said Schwartz. But the door is open for anyone from the original cast who wants a guest spot on a show that might as well be called Gossip Girl: The Next Generation. “If they want to be involved in some way – we’ve reached out to them, we’d love them to be involved but we didn’t want to make it contingent. It’d be great to see them again.”

Hmm, let’s consider. Thanks to a time jump in the final episode, audiences know pretty well what became of Dan, Serena, Nate and Chuck. But Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford) is in the media industry, so we could see him having some kind of presence. Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen) is a fashion designer, and every show needs a character who is a fashion designer. And heck, let’s throw Vanessa Abrams (Jessica Szohr) in there, too. Vanessa was always popping up where you least expected her.

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