Ahead of the part two premiere of its first season, HBO Max has already renewed the smash reboot of Gossip Girl for a second season. The first six episodes premiered earlier in July, and quickly become one fo the most popular HBO Max originals. Although it didn't receive overwhelming critical acclaim, the reboot proved that it was still highly addictive entertainment like its predecessor.
The series follows a new group of rich teens who live on the Upper East Side and the inherent drama that comes with being rich, bored and hot. A younger generation of Constance Billard teachers take over the helm of being Gossip Girl through a switch to Instagram, with the hopes that humbling their students will make life easier on them. Naturally, the voice of Gossip Girl is still dubbed by Kristen Bell's iconic performance, as her silky, snide tone became synonymous with the original series.
The main drama revolves around the arrival of Zoya Lott, the half-sister of "it girl" Julien Calloway. A love triangle soon erupts between the two sisters and Obie, a sensitive, uber-liberal heir. Additionally, another love triangle emerges between Max Wolfe, a pansexual who causes the long-term relationship of Audrey Hope and Aki Menzies to undergo new evaluations. The new cast includes soon-to-be-household names Jordan Alexander, Eli Brown, Thomas Doherty, Tavi Gevinson, Emily Alyn Lind, Evan Mock, Zion Moreno, Whitney Peak and Savannah Lee Smith with Todd Almond, Adam Chanler-Berat, Johnathan Fernandez and Jason Gotay.
No spoilers for the rest of season one, but the mid-season finale had a lot of questions to answer. Additionally, certain episodes made headlines with callbacks to the original series, such as the (random?) appearance of Georgina's son. Gossip Girl has certainly tried to adapt with the generational divide, as well as changing social dynamics and the daily incorporation of social media. While some moments land well, there's certainly a nuance that has improved with each episode. One of the biggest (and most appreciated) changes from the 2007 series is the decision to give Gossip Girl a mature rating, allowing the proper drugs, language and sex to proliferate and titillate.
Gossip Girl is led by showrunner Joshua Safran, who was a writer and executive producer of the original series. In an interview with Collider, Safran revealed that he currently knows his two season arc, with the idea that Gossip Girl could be extended to four seasons. He states that each season is a semester, giving them two years to have all the kids graduate if the series continues. Let's just hope that the actors age as slowly as possible if that is the case (some of them are already in their late 20s!).
Gossip Girl's final six episodes of season one premieres in November on HBO Max.