Washington: Rise and shine, Upper East Siders! Less than 10 years after the insanely popular American series ‘Gossip Girl’ came to an end on the CW, the teen drama is getting a reboot on HBO Max.
The upcoming streaming service, HBO Max, will air 10 hour-long episodes, showing a new generation of rich and famous prep-school teens. In the age of Instagram bloggers and influencers, it’s the perfect time to revive the famed gossip website about New York City’s young elites.
On Wednesday, the streaming service announced plans for a ‘Gossip Girl’ reboot with original creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage tied to the project, reported People.
The upcoming revival will feature a brand-new cast of teens enjoying their privileged lives on New York City’s Upper East Side.
“Eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl,” HBO Max said in a statement, according to Variety.
“The prestige series will address just how much social media and the landscape of New York itself has changed in the intervening years,” the statement added.
Like the original series, the new iteration of the teen show, written by Safran, is based on the book by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series will pick up eight years after the original ‘Gossip Girl’ site went dark, a new generation of private school teens are introduced to the watchful eye of ‘Gossip Girl’.
Original series creators Schwartz and Savage are on board as executive producers. Joshua Safran, an original executive producer whose credits also include ‘Quantico’ and ‘Smash’, is executive producing and writing the reboot, reported E! News.
However, it’s unclear if any of the original actors, who rose to fame with the series, will make an appearance in the upcoming reboot.
The original hit CW teen drama aired from 2007-2012 and starred actors Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Leighton Meester, Ed Westwick, Chace Crawford and more. Kristen Bell served as the voice of ‘Gossip Girl’, the narrator of the series.
Meester said last year that though she has fond memories of her time on the show, she has no interest in reprising her role as the very famous queen bee Blair Waldorf.
“A lot of the questions that come from it are: ‘Do you miss it?’ ‘Did you love what you wore?’ And I understand that, but and I say this with nothing but love it is like saying, ‘High school was an amazing time for you, do you wish you could go back?’ ” she said during an interview with PorterEdit, cited by People.
“And the truth is, it was so special and such a unique, amazing experience, but no, I wouldn’t wanna go back to it, I was a kid,” she added.
Meester was just 21 when the show first premiered and became an instant hit.
She also added that the set was not always “the healthiest environment,” she said she “wouldn’t change” her experience.
“I wouldn’t change anything in the past because I’m happy where I am now,” she said.
HBO Max is all set to launch in the spring of 2020 and be the exclusive home of ‘Friends’, ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’, ‘Pretty Little Liars’ and more. New shows from Kaley Cuoco, Anna Kendrick, and films from Greg Berlanti and Reese Witherspoon will live on the new streaming platform.