Georgina Sparks is up to her usual tricks in the Gossip Girl season 2 trailer. Although the HBO Max reboot follows a new group of privileged teenagers in the Upper East Side, several actors from the original Gossip Girl reprised their roles for the follow-up, including Zuzanna Szadkowski as Dorota Kishlovsky. Margaret Colin and Wallace Shawn also return to their respective roles as Blair’s mother and stepfather. But so far, none of the characters from the original main group — Serena, Blair, Dan, Nate, and Chuck — have made appearances.
That will begin to change with Gossip Girl season 2, which debuts December 1 on HBO Max. The upcoming episodes will feature the return of Michelle Trachtenberg as Georgina. Based on the new footage, which you can watch below, the reboot's sophomore installment will continue key threads from the first season. Those include the uneasy sibling relationship between Julien and Zoya, in addition to the equally uneasy threesome between Max, Aki, and Audrey. But the final shot of the trailer goes to Georgina, who surprises Kate in just about the worst way possible.
What's Georgina Doing In Gossip Girl Season 2?
As fans of the original Gossip Girl will recall, Georgina is very much an agent of chaos. Although she relatively mellowed over the course of the series, probably due to the fact that the main characters wouldn't tolerate her presence otherwise, Trachtenberg's character has no such obligations in the Gossip Girl reboot. Although the writers wouldn't reveal too much about what Sparks is up to, showrunner Joshua Safran did note the character's tendency toward anarchy.
Going off what's teased in the latest preview, it's possible that Georgina uses her experience and history to help Kate keep the new characters in line. Kate, of course, revived the dormant 'gossip girl' identity as a way to keep her students and the rest of the school from behaving badly. But throughout season 1, and all the way to the Gossip Girl season 1 finale, Kate can't exactly commit. She feels, rightly, that what she's doing is wrong and pulls back from some of her worst impulses. Georgina's inclusion, then, calls back to the early ruthlessness of the original.
This could be an indirect response to the reboot's muted response, something which the writers have alluded to while promoting the upcoming episodes. A common complaint is that the show feels the need to stop and make halfhearted acknowledgments of the social progress that has been made since the original first aired. While positive in theory, these moments and conversations don't feel natural to the space that the most wealthy and comfortable characters inhabit and are better suited to other series. Hopefully, with the inclusion of Georgina, Gossip Girl season 2 remembers that it should be fun first and foremost.
Source: HBO Max