This story was originally published by TeenVogue.com.
Gossip Girl is officially set to return next year, and along with a confirmed narrator and some details on the storyline, the HBO Max series also intends to make a much-needed casting change.
Appearing at the Vulture Festival on Saturday, Joshua Safran, a writer and executive producer who worked on the former Gossip Girl and will return for the new one, confirmed that the show will feature a diverse cast. "There was not a lot of representation the first time around on the show,” he said. "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."
In addition to a change in leads, Joshua also confirmed the reboot would feature more LGBTQ+ storylines. "There’s a lot of queer content on this show," he said, before adding, "It is very much dealing with the way the world looks now, where wealth and privilege come from, and how you handle that. The thing I can’t say is there is a twist, and that all relates to the twist."
Unfortunately, we don't know what that twist will be, yet, but Joshua did said that the series will pick up at Constance Billard, 12 to 13 years after the original had ended, making it a "realtime" reboot. Previous reporting also detailed that the show would focus on how social media impacted the world of Gossip Girl, with a logline for the series describing it as, "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."
There's no word on whether any of the OG Gossip Girl cast members might make a cameo on the show, but thankfully, Kristen Bell is returning as narrator.
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