Just How Risqué Will the New Gossip Girl Be on HBO Max?

Series executive producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage addressed the new concepts

By Chris Harnick Aug 04, 2019 6:49 PMTags
Gossip Girl CastThe CW

The new Gossip Girl won't have broadcast network standards and practices, but that doesn't mean the series will go all, well, Euphoria on you.

"I think you don't ever want to feel gratuitous or something that you're doing just because. Luckily, we're now airing post-Euphoria, so anything we do will seem tame in comparison I don't think will be that controversial," series executive producer Josh Schwartz told a small group of press at the 2019 Television Critics Association summer press tour while promoting Nancy Drew.

The producers remained mum on whether the show will roll out all at once for binge or week to week, but they did say there will be some changes for the streaming era.

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"Well, I think we're excited about being able to tell us a different version of the story, and with different levels of restrictions, and obviously, also with streaming, there's fewer episodes. So how you unpack those stories, or how you tell those stories can obviously vary different from a broadcast model. But obviously, we want it all to kind of come out of character," Schwartz said. "And what feels organic to the tone of the show won't be button pushing just for the sake of being able to do it. Maybe a couple s--ts will throw in there just because we can."

As for whether we'll see the likes of Leighton Meester, Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick and Chace Crawford pop up, that remains to be seen. Executive producer Stephanie Savage said the new show takes place after the original show's ending time jump, so it provides an interesting way in for the original group. "So, it can be a lot of fun just to bring that into the new show in some way," she said.

"I mean, the door is open. We reached out to everybody's reps and to let them know about the show. And obviously we love working with that cast," Schwartz said. "If they feel like after six seasons, they feel they played those parts, and they were happy to move on, we respect that. And if they want to come hang with us again, we'd love to have them."

The new series won't necessarily have the mystery of "Who is Gossip Girl?" driving the drama and conflict. "When we say everybody is Gossip Girl, we're talking about in the real world right? Not necessarily on the show like we are all now participants in this thing in a way that wasn't true. You know, back when the show premiered and still there's plenty of conflict amongst all of us," Schwartz said.

Kristen Bell provided the original voice of Gossip Girl and served as the narrator on the series. "We would love for Kristen to do it, and until we know that, we can't imagine anybody else doing it," Schwartz said.

And while Gossip Girl is coming back, don't expect to see Schwartz and Savage's other beloved teen-centered drama The OC to return.

"That was brought up at one point, we were asked about doing a return to The OC to see those kids grown up. For us, that was a very, very singular story. We felt like we completed that tale by the end. Gossip Girl, because of sort of the franchise at the center of it this idea, this ubiquitous, all seeing technology, that felt like it had the opportunity to be revisited for a new generation as that technology has evolved, advanced, and unfortunately mutated in the intervening years," Schwartz said.

Gossip Girl does not have a premiere date on HBO Max.