‘Gossip Girl’ Creator Confirms Reboot Will Be a ‘Continuation’ Not a Remake
Creator Josh Schwartz revealed the Gossip Girl reboot will be more of a "continuation," not a remake of the original.
As previously reported, the beloved teen drama, which aired on the CW from 2007 to 2012, is coming back to WarnerMedia's new streaming service HBO Max in Spring 2020. But unlike so many other reboots, such as Will & Grace, Fuller House and Roseanne, the new series will not be based on the original characters.
The Gossip Girl boss also confirmed it will not be a reboot with new actors playing the original's iconic roles. Instead, it'll be more like a sequel because otherwise, the story wouldn't make much sense.
"There aren't, like, new actors playing Serena and Blair. It's not a remake. [It's] a continuation of that world," Schwartz said, according to TVLine, while promoting his new Hulu series Looking for Alaska.
“[Stephanie Savage and I] felt that a version with just our cast grown up, regardless of the challenges of getting those actors, didn’t feel like a group of adults controlled by ‘gossip girl’ made much sense," he explained. "We felt there was something interesting that we are all ‘gossip girl’ in our own way and how that’s evolved, morphed and mutated and telling that story through a new generation of upper east side high school kids felt right."
As for whether Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick will be involved in the new Gossip Girl, Schwartz revealed he's reached out to them and they're welcome to make cameos if they want to.
“If they want to be involved in some way, we’ve reached out to all of them to let them know it’s happening, and that we would love for them to be involved if they want to be involved,” he said.
However, he understands if they want no part in the upcoming reboot. “They played those characters for six years, if they felt like they are good with that, we wanted to respect that. But obviously any time anybody wants [to come back] it would be great to see them again," Schwartz added.