#Gossip Girl Reboot Cast Dishes On How The Show Will Be More Diverse Than The OG — Plus Everything We Know So Far!

Hey Upper East Siders, it is time to get ready to wave in a new generation of Manhattan’s elite, and we have all of the juicy deets about the Gossip Girl reboot right here!

The cast of the new series posed for the latest issue of Cosmopolitan, where they detailed how the HBO Max show plans to correct some of the iconic teen drama’s shortcomings. The main fix: the lack of diversity within its main stars. Whitney Peak, who is our new lonely boy as Zoya Lott, told the publication:

“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.’”

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Sharing the same sentiment, Savannah Smith, who plays Monet de Haan, added:

“It’s really important for a Black girl, with twists in her hair, to be able to see someone in a position of power, who looks like her. And it’s also important for kids in the suburbs or kids who don’t have a lot of Black friends or friends of color just to generally see us depicted in different ways. I think this could really change things. Maybe they’re not learning these things at home, but they’re seeing them on Gossip Girl.”

With that in mind, Tavi Gevinson, AKA Kate Keller, said the show plans to also dig deep into the divide between the upper and lower class.

“Part of the fun of watching the old one at the time was, ‘Oh, this is what it’s like to be a very privileged teenager who can act with impunity,’ and living vicariously through that, but with this show, class resentment is a much more explicit part of it, which I’m very in tune with.”

Inneresting!

In case you’re curious, the reboot takes place eight years after (SPOILER) Dan Humphrey confessed to being the original Gossip Girl. The series will focus on a whole new group of privileged New York City students — all of whom have fallen victim to a new mysterious gossip maven. Before you get your hopes up, the original cast members don’t plan to make any appearances. However, their characters still exist in the reboot world, so expect some name drops here and there. Fingers crossed, we will see the beloved Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf in the future!

The new crew will feature six other principals along with Peak, Smith, and Gevinson: Emily Alyn Lind as Audrey Hope, Evan Mock as Aki Menzies, Jordan Alexander as Julien Calloway, Thomas Doherty as Max Wolfe, Eli Brown as Obie Bergmann IV, and Zión Moreno as Luna La. Of course, Gossip Girl herself will still be voiced by Kristen Bell!

So far, showrunner Joshua Safran has remained tight-lipped about the nitty-gritty details of the show. Though, we do know that Lind’s character has some MAJOR Blair energy and is in a long-term relationship with Aki. In addition, Doherty’s role seems to have some Chuck Bass party-boy vibes. So perhaps, we will have a repeat of the famous love story?! Safran confessed to Cosmo that:

“My hope is that we make it to airing, and people don’t know. I would love to see that conversation happen in the context of people having seen it as opposed to talking about something they haven’t seen.”

Fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to get the tea on what the socialites are doing! The writer surprised fans with the release date, retweeting Cosmopolitan’s first interview with the cast and writing:

“Oh hi also: show drops in July.”

Oh hi also: show drops in July. https://t.co/wrwUt0Gw1O

— Joshua Safran (@Anthologist) April 28, 2021

 

Mark your calendars, Perezcious readers! And while you are at it, let us know how excited you are for the Gossip Girl reboot in the comments (below).

[Image via Whitney Peak/Instagram, HBO Max/Gossip Girl]