A 'Gossip Girl' Revival Is Officially In The Works At HBO Max
You know you love her, and that's why she's coming back. A Gossip Girl revival is officially in the works at HBO Max, which means it's time for Upper East Siders (and fans everywhere) to get ready for designer duds, New York hot spots, and plenty of scandal. The reboot will come from the creators of the original series, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, along with executive producer Joshua Safran. This will be a modernized version of the early-2000s hit show, still based on the book series by Cecily von Ziegesar. Per Deadline, here's the official logline for the new Gossip Girl series:
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 new 10-episode series will stream on the upcoming service HBO Max. The original Gossip Girl, which ran on The CW from 2007 to 2012, followed the very eventful lives of young New York City socialites whose lives were tracked by the omnipresent, titular blog Gossip Girl. As the logline hints, a lot has changed in the years since Gossip Girl's finale, and not just the platform on which it airs. At the end of the original series, the Gossip Girl site had shuttered, and the identity of the gossip maven was revealed to be Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley). These days, social media plays such a prevalent part of viewers' lives, so it makes sense that some version of Gossip Girl would come back to work her magic on the Upper East Side. Perhaps this time, in addition to a blog, Gossip Girl would have a constantly-updated Instagram story or Snapchat feed. But who would star in Gossip Girl today?
Kristen Bell provided the voice of the original Gossip Girl, and was the de facto narrator of the entire series. Alongside Badgley, the series regulars Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Chase Crawford, and Ed Westwick all became stars thanks to the show's success. There's no word yet on whether any of the original cast will be a part of this new version of the show, but some of the actors have already confirmed that they're open to it. On July 10, Crawford told Digital Spy that he'd be interested in seeing how an updated Gossip Girl would manifest. Crawford said:
I don't know what it would look like with us being in our 30s now, but I always say, because it was such a big part of my life, I'm open to anything. It would have to be really right, and really specific.
The original cast's involvement hasn't been officially addressed yet, but fans on Twitter have already made it clear they don't want Gossip Girl without the same characters they know and love. Fans are especially adamant about the show including Meester's iconic character Blair Waldorf.
Fans will just have to wait and see what the new Gossip Girl brings when HBO Max starts streaming in 2020.
