HBO Max has finally revealed new details about their highly-anticipated Gossip Girl reboot, confirming that Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s newest teen drama series is scheduled to make its debut this summer in July and is expected to be set in a post-pandemic time. In an exclusive cover story by Cosmopolitan, a more detailed description of the reboot’s main characters has been shared, introducing us to Gossip Girl’s newest Upper East Side targets in the form of Zoya, Audrey, Aki, Julien, Max, Obi, Luna, Monet and Kate.
Whitney Peak will be playing the role of Zoya Lott, who is being likened to Penn Badgley’s Dan Humphrey as the show’s relatable-ish tour guide through the glamourous world of the Constance Billard and St. Jude students. Jordan Alexander portrays teen influencer Julien Calloway, who’s the best friend to Emily Alyn Lind’s Audrey Hope. Audrey is a posh student at Constance whose mother is an athleisure designer and has been in a long-term relationship with Evan Mock’s Aki Menzies.
Meanwhile, Thomas Doherty and Eli Brown are playing the respective roles of Max Wolfe and Obie Bergman IV, who are described as the life of the party. Joining them are Zión Moreno’s Luna La , Savannah Smith’s Monet de Haan, and Tavi Gevinson’s mystery character Kate Keller.
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During the same interview, writer and showrunner Joshua Safran, who was also the writer for the original series, went on to stress how important representation and diversity are in the process of making the Gossip Girl reboot, which they saw as a second chance to correct the sins of the past.
“There are more than enough shows with white people centered in them,” Safran said. “I’m married to a Mexican American man; I am a queer man. My world is not exclusively white. No ones is.”
Lead star Whitney Peak added, “Representation is everything. I want all the hers and the hes and the theys and the people of color from all over the world to be able to watch the show and think, ‘That’s a person who looks like me. I don’t have to be the stereotypical idea of who I am.”
Based on the book by Cecily von Ziegesar, the 10-episode sequel series will be set eight years after Dan Humphrey shuts down the titular website. The Gossip Girl reboot will now introduce a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl. The prestige series will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.
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Like the original series, the new iteration of Gossip Girl is also written by Joshua Safran, with Kristen Bell returning to once again narrate the series and reprise her role as the voice of Gossip Girl.
The Gossip Girl reboot will be executive produced by Josh Safran with Fake Empire’s Josh Schwartz and StephanieSavage alongside Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo of Alloy Entertainment. Fake Empire’s Lis Rowinski will co-executive produce with Fake Empire and Alloy Entertainment producing in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television.
