Hey Upper East Siders, this just in: the Gossip Girl spin-off for HBO Max is bringing back one of the original stars of the CW series for its new episodes.
And not just any original star, but Gossip Girl herself, as TVLine reports that the series’ narrator Kristen Bell will be back and reprising her role as the ultimate gossip queen by continuing to voice all the GG blasts, spotteds and rumours that are sent her way.
Show creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage also confirmed Bell’s return in a joint statement with the new series’ showrunner Joshua Safran, saying: “Kristen Bell has always been and will always be the voice of Gossip Girl.”
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Disney+
The news comes after Bell previously revealed that she’d been in discussions for a role in the spin-off.
“We’re figuring out whether it can work. I certainly hope it does,” she said back in August.
After voicing Gossip Girl in every episode of the original series, Kristen Bell finally made a cameo appearance in the series finale, starring as herself as she and Rachel Bilson read lines for the adaptation of Dan Humphrey’s (aka the real Gossip Girl) book.
CBS
The new 10-episode series will focus on a brand new bunch of Manhattan’s elite, while addressing “just how much social media – and the landscape of New York itself – has changed in the intervening years”.
Speaking earlier this year, executive producer Josh Schwartz stressed that the new show is not a reboot, and is instead a “continuation” of the world introduced in the original series with all-new characters.
“There aren’t, like, new actors playing Serena and Blair. It’s not a remake. [It’s] a continuation of that world,” he explained, before adding that he wouldn’t rule out the original stars making an appearance at all.
The CW
“We’ve reached out to all of them to let them know it was happening, and we would love for them to be involved if they want to be involved. But [we] certainly didn’t want to make it contingent upon their [participation].
“They played those characters for six years, and if they felt like they were good with that, we wanted to respect that. But obviously, it would be great to see them again.”
Well, we already know that Chace Crawford is keen to return, but we’ll have to wait and see if anyone else is interested in getting involved.
The Gossip Girl spin-off will air on HBO Max, which launches next year. In the meantime, you can catch up on seasons 1-6 of the original series on Netflix now.
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