Here's everything you need to know about the Gossip Girl reboot
Three words, 16 letters. Say it, and we’re hooked: Gossip Girl reboot.
So, what is GG2.0 all about? Now that’s a secret we’re dying to tell. Word on the Met Steps is that Stephanie Savage and Joshua Safran (Smash) are returning to executive produce the new version of their sumptuous television brainchild. Based on Cecily von Ziegesar’s bestselling book series, the show originally ran from 2007-12 on The CW and put actors like Blake Lively (A Simple Favor) and Penn Badgley (You) on Hollywood’s radar.
Savage and Safran (along with fellow executive producers, Alloy Entertainment’s Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo) secured a 10-episode order for the series on HBO Max and are moving full yellow-taxi (or I guess Uber now?) speed ahead toward putting the show together for its expected launch in 2020.
You know you love EW because we’ve got all you need to know about the updated version of the beloved New York prep school drama. Xoxo.
You know you love her… Kristen Bell’s back
Kristen Bell returning as the voice of our favorite bitchy blogger, Gossip Girl? We must be in The Good Place! Bell has had a packed year: starring in the Veronica Mars reboot, The Good Place’s final season and Frozen 2, but EW was relieved to confirm that the streets of the Upper East Side will still feature the ominous echo of her voice, sassy one-liners included. If Bell’s flawless reprise as Gossip Girl while reading Donald Trump tweets on Late Night With Seth Meyers last year was any indication, she hasn’t lost a step.
But she’s different now
The early 2000s was the age of the dot com blogger, but teens at the turn of the decade are living half their lives on social media, which means the other half is deeply affected by it. Perhaps Gossip Girl 2020 utilizes the viral nature of a snarky Twitter post or a well-worded caption on a highly curated photo from her Insta feed, published while sipping on a latte in a cute Manhattan coffee shop. And even if Gossip Girl’s website is still running, her readers will more likely find it by way of a swipe-up.
And so are her victims
The Upper East Side elite is not the way we remember: privileged white kids who chastised lonely boy Dan Humphrey for nothing more than his lack of old money and elite breeding. Gossip Girl 2.0 will dive into characters that come from characteristically marginalized positions of society: the queer community and racial minorities, according to Vulture.
“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,” Safran confirmed at the 2019 Vulture Festival this past weekend.
Oh, but they are still prep school attendees with a ton of cash flow. Safran even tapped his Manhattan private school source, a close friend’s stepdaughter, to get a realistic picture of what the Upper East Side looks like for Gen-Z, according to Vulture.
Plus, Nate Archibald approves:
Chace Crawford, who played the golden boy at the center of Blair Waldorf’s and Serena van der Woodsen’s feuds, sang HBO Max’s praises for revolutionizing television for teens:
“Look at a show like Euphoria — they’re redefining what a high school drama or what kids go through these days means. I’m sure this is going to be a fresh take and Josh and Stephanie are incredible,” Crawford told EW. “They’re going to make it great. There’s still a demand for it — people are always asking if I’d go back and do more. Hats off to them. I think it’s a good idea.”
Plus, The Boys star is open to making a cameo on the reboot and reflected on his admiration for Savage and Safran to EW.
“I’m always grateful for the opportunity they gave me and that whole experience — it was all of my 20s, it was like my college, living in New York for that time. I’ll always have fond memories of it,” Crawford reminisced.
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