Though the original series—a popular teen melodrama that got so big its stars were on the cover of Rolling Stone—ended less than 10 years ago, the TV powers that be decided it was ripe for a reboot.
There are openly queer characters, and more people of color in the central cast this time around, something Safran actively pushed for.
In the original series, Brooklyn boy Dan Humphrey is revealed in the final season to have been the actual Gossip Girl—a revelation that made little sense and has been picked apart by fans in retrospect over the years, including by Badgley himself.
There are a handful of references to famous Constance-Billard alums, including Humphrey and Nate Archibald, who’s gone on to be quite successful in the world of the show.
But the show creator, who was also showrunner of the musical series Smash, the FBI thriller Quantico, and the little-seen Netflix series Soundtrack, added Easter eggs from all his shows into Gossip Girl, tying it all into one big Safranian TV universe.
The show creator actually pulled details from his own life when reimagining the series, having grown up in the Upper East Side himself and going to private schools with rich kids who rolled around in new Mercedes and BMWs.
Now, though, after years as a successful TV creator, having already ensconced himself in the world of New York’s rich kids once before, Safran feels comfortable creating a heightened portrait of how those teens live today.
I hate to say it, but the joke in the writers room is the writers, even the ones in their 20s, would stop writing specificity of the restaurants or the catchphrases, because they just knew that I would do it.
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