Let’s get a show of hands — who else is super excited for the upcoming Gossip Girl remake?! For those who missed it, it was announced back in July 2019 that they were rebooting the iconic CW show, and fans could not be more excited! In fact, the show’s Instagram account gave fans a first look at the upcoming series. HBO also confirmed that the show would be hitting their streaming service, HBO Max, in 2021, but there’s no projected release date just yet.
Set four years after the original show ended, the upcoming series will follow a brand new group of Upper East Siders as they’re thrown under the microscope of Gossip Girl’s social surveillance. The show, which has officially started filming, will also explore how much social media and New York City has changed over the years. In an Instagram Stories post from November 2020, showrunner Joshua Safran explained why the new series isn’t exactly a “reboot.”
“A) The cast aren’t playing the original characters B) It exists in the same world as the original C) The same creators and one of the original writers are making it D) No one involved with it is calling it a reboot,” he wrote.
These comments come days after Thomas Doherty gave fans a first look at the inside of his trailer on the first day of filming via Instagram on November 1, 2020. Then, the entire cast was photographed shooing on the iconic Met steps!
Previously, Joshua opened up about the show’s major changes.
“It is very much dealing with the way the world looks now, where wealth and privilege come from, and how you handle that,” he revealed at 2019 Vulture Fest. “The thing I can’t say is there is a twist, and that all relates to the twist.”
He also hopes that the continuation will feature more diversity than the original show.
“There was not a lot of representation the first time around on the show,” the showrunner added. “I was the only gay writer I think the entire time I was there. Even when I went to private school in New York in the ’90s, the school didn’t necessarily reflect what was on Gossip Girl. So, this time around, the leads are nonwhite. There’s a lot of queer content on this show.”
On Twitter, Safran also revealed that “the show takes place in the same universe as the original.”
Plus, the series’ original costume designer, Eric Daman, is set to return!
“I am so thrilled to be a part of the new GG Generation!” Eric told Teen Vogue. “It has been incredible to see the youth of today discovering and binging GG during these times! Very excited to delight and inspire all of the GG fans, new and OG, with some delicious, trendsetting fashions for this new era! Can’t Wait!”
Wow, how epic does that sound?! It will have 10 episodes in total, and was originally set to premiere this year on WarnerMedia’s soon-to-launch streaming service, HBO Max, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been pushed to 2021. But, according to Variety, production on the highly-anticipated series is set to start in October 2020.
As fans know, the original show starred Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick and Taylor Momsen, and it aired from September 2007 to December 2012. But wait, will any of the OG stars appear in the new show? Who else is starring in it? Don’t worry, people, because J-14‘s got you covered. Scroll through our gallery to meet the full cast of the upcoming Gossip Girl reboot.
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