Gossip Girl Boss: HBO Max’s Version More a ‘Continuation’ Than a Reboot
Sorry, Gossip Girl fans, Serena, Blair & Co. will not be part of HBO Max‘s forthcoming take on the CW series — but they do exist in the ethos of the new drama.
“There aren’t, like, new actors playing Serena and Blair. It’s not a remake. [It’s] a continuation of that world,” executive producer Josh Schwartz told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, where he was promoting his Hulu limited series Looking for Alaska.
That said, the door is open for the original stars, which included leading ladies Blake Lively and Leighton Meester, to make an appearance. “We’ve reached out to all of them to let them know it was happening, and we would love for them to be involved if they want to be involved,” Schwartz said. “But [we] certainly didn’t want to make it contingent upon their [participation]. They played those characters for six years, and if they felt like they were good with that, we wanted to respect that. But obviously, it would be great to see them again.”
Instead, the 10-episode series will introduce a fresh crop of gorgeous Manhattan private-schoolers to Gossip Girl’s all-seeing eye. Per the streaming service, the next-gen show “will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.”
Gossip Girl EP Joshua Safran will pen the new take and serve as an EP. “He had a really great take and a really great idea, and that made it feel like this was the moment,” Schwartz explained. “He definitely wanted to subvert the original paradigm.”
Schwartz added that the subject of a new Gossip Girl is something he and co-creator Stephanie Savage “have been talking about off and on over the last couple years,” but they needed the right idea.
“We felt like a version that was just our cast grown up — regardless of what the challenges would be of assembling those actors again — it didn’t really feel like a group of adults who were being controlled by Gossip Girl would make a lot of sense,” Schwartz continued. “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 kind of purveyors of our own social media state, and how that’s evolved and how that has morphed and mutated, and telling that story through a new generation of Upper East Side high school kids just felt like the right time.”
There’s no premiere date for Gossip Girl 2.0; however, WarnerMedia’s new streaming service launches in the spring of 2020.
They should’ve at least gotten a new writer/EP. Joshua Safran ruined the show tbh
Yeah, I can’t believe they are letting him do it; a delusional teenage fanfic writer could plot a better episode of Gossip Girl than he could. I just hope the new series has the same clever play-on-words episode titles.
Is Kristen Bell on board at least to do the voice of Gossip girl again????
Literally all I need to hear was that Safran was involved to know that this will be a mess that should be avoided. He ruined GG and Smash.
Actually Joshua left the show before the final season and given that season six is terrible I don’t think he was the one who ruined it
I didn’t care about this series when it originally aired and I still have no interest. It’s good news for the fans, but I won’t be tuning in. Then again, I’m probably not in their target demographic. At least the actors will have something to do and get to catch up with each other.
The Why the f would you think your opinion is of any interest in this conversation?? These f Americans
I’m entitled to have an opinion whether or not you agree with it, Carlos. If my opinion wasn’t of any interest then you wouldn’t have replied to it.
Opinion about what? Your opinion is irrelevant, it has the same value like an opinion of a German about a TV Show in Indonesia he never watched ur never would watch. Grow up, you don’t have to have an opinion about everything. But you won’t get it anyway, it’s the self entitlement of people these days.
There’s still the chuck problem. Blair would probably have to be a widow
So will they actually have a plan for who Gossip Girl is this time instead of making a dumb last minute retcon decision to reveal it as someone who it couldn’t possibly have been?
This!!!!
Umm if you watch the show from the beginning the clues are there thDsm is GG-
1)in the pilot A girl sees & takes a pic of Serena at GCS .Thrn Dan sees her and the GG blast goes out.A scene later before the opening credits Dan is seen sitting at his computer and the morning after the party.,Jenny jokes /remarks on his computer being open to GG site.
2)In the s2 finale GG calls Dan “ the ultimate insider”-GG IS the ultimate insider! Plus in that episode,Serena arranges to meet GG and who shows up first?Dan!
3) He anonymously publishes a book called Indider”& in s5& then s6 writes scathing weekly columns about all of them
Lol stop, Penn Badgley, Blake Lively, Leighton Meester have all confirmed the writers had no plan from the beginning and that Gossip Girl reveal was a last minute decision.
Um, except there are multiple scenes times when Dan is alone and reading Gossip Girl blasts (blasts, not tips) and is totally shocked by the information contained in them. And multiple times when GG blasts screws the person who is gossip girl over, heck, they even lose job opportunities because of it. And the biggest plothole of them all, GG having been covering Serena for a while should be aware of who Georgina is. Yet Dan has no idea and is manipulated by G pretending to be Sarah. Considering he supposedly started GG to get Serena, and that his manipulation by Georgina is what breaks him and Serena up, why on Earth would he let that happen if he was GG?
Also can’t remember where I read or heard it but there was a scene cut where Dan is fitting at his computer narrating,but it was cut according to the producers.
Exactly! It annoys me how much hate Dan always gets I admit Dan wasn’t perfect however the writers made Dan act they way he did in season 6 and made him GG to make Chuck look like the better option for Blair which even if I somehow believed that Dan was GG which I don’t especially since the writers even admitted that they made Dan GG at the last minute which just goes to show how bad they were at their job they knew that Dan was the better man for Blair so they had to basically ruin his character to make chuck look good. Dan treated her like she always wanted like her own person like a princess like a partner with him she matured and evolved and as soon as she got back with chuck she reverted into that petty self centered girl worse than she was in season one I really couldn’t stand her in the final season. Chuck did cheat on her in season two when Jack comes in and tricks Blair into making a party with the bass industry investors he takes chuck to party and hook up with girls to which chuck happily does even though he knew damm well he was with Blair. He was always looking for excuses to ruin their relationship when they were together and then when she was happy with someone else he would ruin it. Dan loved Blair since season four but yet he was still their for her as a friend in her relationship problems unlike chuck who would get possessive over her with other guys. Yes Dan made a mistake sleeping with Serena but let’s not forget Serena’s hand in making that happen she went to him when he was heartbroken over Blair not meeting him and seduced him.Chuck would always go sleep with other women the minute things went wrong with Blair so he wasn’t perfect anyways the only thing that is good about this is that nowadays there wouldn’t be a character like Chuck on tv without the audience hatting him and also that even Leighton and Ed Westwick themselves have said in interviews that Dan was better for Blair
Actually, Erik van der Woodsen was supposed to be Gossip Girl-which was a great idea-but it was unfortunately leaked so we got stuck with the Dan contrivance. I would rather that we never learned who Gossip Girl was.
Maybe it’s going to be Gossip Girl: The Carlyles, like in the books spin off series :D
God.. Joshua Safran…. I mean, he has, I guess, good premises, but his executions were just….God helps us all. I mean… remember Quantico?