Dear Gossips,
There was a lot of excitement online yesterday when the new Gossip Girl cast was photographed filming on the steps of the Met as people are now trying to figure out who’s playing whom. Not that the characters will be the same – we’re not getting a new Blair Waldorf – but the archetypes are expected to be represented, right? Who is the Chuck Bass of the crew? Or the Jenny Humphrey? Will the Serena Van Der Woodsen of 2021 be as boring as the OG? Blair Waldorf was the beating heart and the soul of Gossip Girl. Right now, if these shots are any indication, Jordan Alexander might be the queen bee who rules Constance Billard. She’s the one with the very short hair who is barely adhering to the school uniform. And she’s Canadian, a musician from Toronto who will no doubt become one of the biggest breakout stars of the series. I can’t wait to see more of the costumes (the original costumer designer, Eric Daman, is part of the new team) – and how Jordan wears the sh-t out of her wardrobe. She currently has about 8,500 followers on social media. This number should be increasing soon.
There’s also another Canadian connection: Karena Evans, the director whose work you know from Drake’s music videos (“God’s Plan”, “Nice For What”, “In My Feelings”), is directing the first two episodes of the series. Producers have promised that the new Gossip Girl will be much more diverse than the original (which wasn’t inclusive at all) and it would seem that representation is happening in front of and behind the camera.
Speaking of Instagram, the new Gossip Girl will still be about private school kids and their dramas, and likely feature a ball every episode (there was a ball for everything!), this time social media is in play. Which means one character, for sure, will be a TikTok star. So, no, this is not a reboot, even though it’s constantly referred to as one. Showrunner Joshua Safran prefers a different word: extension. This is what he posted on Instagram stories:
Also… he has promised that the show will be “very, very queer”.
There’s no official release date for Gossip Girl yet but this has to be a priority for HBO Max since, well, they need the subscriptions. Will Gossip Girl be the thing that boosts HBO Max’s membership? And since it’s on HBO Max, will they actually not have to sanitise the way these kids speak? There’s a lot more freedom with the language on streaming services. Let these kids drop some f-cks now and again.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
