Although rich teenagers are no strangers to TV shows (Netflix's The Society and the classic WB drama One Tree Hill are two examples), no show was like Gossip Girl. On the air from 2007 to 2012 for six seasons, the show told the story of best pals (and sometimes big enemies) Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). Fighting for free reign of the Upper East Side, Serena and Blair scheme, have fabulous romances, and wear the most expensive clothing that their parents' money can buy.
Now that we know that a reboot of GG is coming, it's time to take a look at what this means. Here is everything we need to know about this new show.
The Show Will Follow Different Characters
Reboots can do one of three things: start where the show left off, feature the characters much older (and maybe feature one of their kids), or be related to the original show but follow different people.
A successful revival could definitely go down any of these paths, but for any Gossip Girl fans who want to see what Blair, Serena, and the rest of the gang are up to today, they might not like hearing this. Cosmopolitan notes that the GG reboot will follow different characters. We're still going to be optimistic because, hey, once upon a time, the GG crew was totally unknown to us and then we couldn't stop watching the scheming adventures of these Upper East Siders. We could feel the same about these teens.
It Will Be On HBO Max
HBO Max is WarnerMedia's streaming service. It has been in the news recently because Friends will be switching its streaming platform from Netflix to HBO Max, which is definitely interesting.
We know that the Gossip Girl reboot will be not on The CW, like the original series, but available to stream on HBO Max. Since HBO Now is $14.99 monthly, this new service could be $16-20.
It's About Social Media
What will the Gossip Girl reboot be about, besides a group of teenagers who have more money than most people, of course?
TV Line says that, according to HBO Max, the series “will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.” Since the OG show was about secrets and an anonymous figure who seemed to know everything, adding in social media is only logical.
There Will Be 10 Episodes
Smaller seasons seem to be pretty popular these days. In a crowded landscape of 22-episode procedural dramas, a nicely fine-tuned 10 to 12 season show seems like heaven for TV fans.
According to TV Line, the reboot will have 10 episodes. Each one will be 60 minutes in total. This makes sense since this seems to be the trend for TV dramas on streaming services like Netflix. Since the original GG series was on The CW, each episode's running time was around 40-42 minutes to account for commercials. Longer episodes is always music to a TV fan's ears.
Following The Adult Lives Of The OG Teens Wasn't In The Cards
We'd love to know more about how the story idea came about, and according to Buzzfeed, creator Josh Schwartz said, "We felt that a version with 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 that would be patrolled by Gossip Girl would make a lot of sense."
This is interesting to hear, and while fans might wish that they could see Serena, Blair, and the rest of the characters in their adult lives, it really wouldn't feel the same.
People Wonder About These Famous Faces
Of course, fans want to know: will Leighton Meester and Blake Lively be on the new show? Typically, when a revival or reboot is about different characters, the old crew will come back at least for a few episodes. This was the case with the 2009 reboot of 90210.
Interestingly, Lively and Meester have said very similar things on the topic, as noted by Glamour. Meester has said, "I never say never. So I don't know. No one's sent me that information, it's coming from you." And Lively said, "But I've just learned in life you never say never. I'm looking to do something that I haven't done yet, not something that I did. But would I do that? Who knows—if it was good, if it made sense. We had so much fun shooting and living and working in New York City."
Chace Crawford Talked About It
In a July 2017 interview with Digital Spy, Chace Crawford, who played Nate Archibald, talked about Gossip Girl coming back. He said, "It would be very tough to get everybody on board I think because of their schedules, Penn, Leighton, Ed... They're all doing really good TV shows. It would be hard I think [to get them all together]. The reboot might come in the form of new characters. I would absolutely cameo. I'd have to!"
Fans will love hearing that. There's no confirmation that Crawford or anyone else would be returning, but fans can definitely hope and dream.
It Probably Won't Feature Dan
We also know that the new show probably won't feature Penn Badgley reprising his role. The actor, known for playing Dan Humphrey (and also for his recent role on the acclaimed TV series You), has discussed if he would ever be on a reboot or revival.
He said to Variety, “I suppose you should never say never. I suppose there are conditions where I would. Do I think those conditions will ever exist? No. But they might.”
Josh Schwartz And Stephanie Savage Are EPs
Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have worked together on several TV shows. Savage was an Executive Producer and Writer on The O.C., which Schwartz created, and they are the creators of Gossip Girl. The two are also working on the Hulu miniseries Looking For Alaska, based on the young adult book of the same name by John Green, and the Nancy Drew show on The CW.
It's good to know that the same people who created the fabulous, fancy world on Gossip Girl are coming back.
2020 Seems Like The Logical Date
Cosmopolitan mentions that while there's no known date for when this show will be available for our binge-watching pleasure, 2020 is when HBO Max will be ready for streaming. So it seems like 2020 is the logical date for this reboot.
While that's a long time to wait, at least there are six seasons of Gossip Girl to go back and watch from the beginning. (And we can pretend that Dan Humphrey wasn't actually GG all along.)