Why HBO Max Canceled The Gossip Girl Reboot
In 2021, a reboot of "Gossip Girl" said "Hey, Upper East Siders" again years after the original series wrapped up its run on The CW. Then, in January 2023, HBO Max canceled the series after just two seasons. So, what happened? In short: It wasn't good.
I'll circle back to the "not good" part momentarily, but before that, what did the series' creative team say about its rather sudden cancellation (and by "sudden," I mean that it didn't get to wrap up its narrative with a real finale)? In a statement that showrunner Joshua Safran posted on X (known as Twitter at the time), he elaborated on the cancellation across several posts. "So, here's the goss: it is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce 'Gossip Girl' will not be continuing on HBO Max," he began.
"The EPs and I will forever be grateful to the network and studio for their faith and support; the writers for their devious brains and dexterous talent; the superstar cast for being the greatest of collaborators and friends; and the crew for their hard work, dedication, and love for the project," Safran continued before adding that he hoped to find a new home for the "Gossip Girl" reboot elsewhere. (This did not come to fruition.) Ultimately, though, Safran offered up one last word of thanks to the fans. In a postscript, he wrote, "A big thank you to all the 'Gossip Girl' fans around the world. You're the reason we came back in the first place, and who knows, maybe the reason we will meet again. Much love."
As of this writing, I highly doubt that the "Gossip Girl" reboot will ever return to the small screen, and unless Safran radically retooled it (or perhaps even started from scratch), I do think that's for the best. Let's begin, though, with what the "Gossip Girl" reboot was about in the first place.
The Gossip Girl reboot took place in the same universe as the original show, but years later
First things first: The "Gossip Girl" reboot does acknowledge its predecessor in that, within its universe, the titular blog — once run by Penn Badgley's "lonely boy" Dan Humphrey — has been dormant for years, and fictional figures from the original show like Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen, played by Leighton Meester and Blake Lively, remain legends. This story, though, focuses on two girls — Julien Calloway, the show's de facto "queen bee" played by Jordan Alexander, and her half-sister Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak), who specifically moves to Manhattan with her dad Nick Lott (Johnathan Fernandez) to meet Julien. (The two girls had the same mother, who passed away long before they came to unite as teenagers.)
As Zoya's star begins to rise, Julien finds herself jealous of her beautiful and charismatic half-sister, especially when Zoya strikes up a connection with Julien's on-again, off-again boyfriend Otto "Obie" Bergmann IV (Eli Brown). The rest of Julien's clique, such as it is, includes her best friend Audrey Hope, an obvious Blair stand-in played by Emily Alyn Lind, as well as pansexual playboy Max Wolfe (Thomas Doherty), Audrey's boyfriend Akeno "Aki" Menzies (Evan Mock), and the formidable duo Luna La (Zión Moreno) and Monet de Haan (Savannah Lee Smith), who are both always on hand to help Julien rule their elite private school with iron fists.
The weirdest thing the "Gossip Girl" reboot does, though, is immediately reveal the person behind the recently rebooted Gossip Girl blog — and in an even more baffling move, that person is a teacher. Yes, Tavi Gevinson's Kate Keller, who teaches English at the fictional New York school Constance Billard, hides behind the moniker — alongside fellow teachers like Jordan Glassberg (Adam Chanler-Berat) — to bully her own students after she gets tired of them controlling the entire narrative, which is, to put it lightly, absurd and terrible. (A teacher at a school should not be posting creepy paparazzi-style shots of teenagers kissing!!! That is just ... wrong!!!)
The "Gossip Girl" reboot tried to stir up controversy and drama just like the original, but ultimately, it failed in its mission, no matter how much betrayal and incest the showrunners threw at the wall. So, why wasn't it any good? It was too — and this word is going to seem bizarre here, but bear with me — ethical.
Honestly, the Gossip Girl reboot was doomed to fail — because it wasn't mean enough
The key to the success of the original "Gossip Girl," which ran on The CW for six seasons from 2007 to 2012, is that it was an outrageous, mean, and over-the-top spectacle where a bunch of 20-somethings played cruel teenagers who would stop at nothing to destroy one another. Sure, there are sincere connections throughout the show — Blair and her on-again, off-again paramour Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) do end up together, and Blair and Serena's often fractured friendship has an unexpectedly solid foundation when all is said and done — but everything that everyone does on "Gossip Girl" is categorically ludicrous.
For example, in season 1, Serena dramatically announces that she only left Manhattan for boarding school (her return is what kicks off the pilot) because she "killed someone" (that's not technically true, but it's also a whole thing, and I'm not going to get into it). Meanwhile, Chuck offers Blair as a sexual prize to his own uncle, the transparently and hilariously evil Jack Bass (Desmond Harrington), in exchange for a luxury hotel — a hotel, I should say, that Chuck inexplicably purchased before he could legally drink. Also, Chuck's similarly wicked dad Bart Bass (Robert John Burke, who later appeared on "The Last of Us") dies and comes back to life, and Elizabeth Hurley plays Diana Payne, who is a cougar — in that she both seduces young men like the barely legal Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford) and wears a ton of loud animal prints. And let's not forget the time Blair marries a prince, but he turns out to be — you guessed it — evil!!!
The original "Gossip Girl" is awesome in that it accepts its sheer ridiculousness and leans in. Conversely, the "Gossip Girl" reboot is so concerned with niceties and worried about offending anyone that, after any of the teens do anything shady or mean, there's an extended scene filled with heartfelt apologies. (This happens most frequently between Julien and Zoya.) Frankly, nobody is watching any version of "Gossip Girl" to watch teens behave nicely and considerately; they want to see them being horrible, and even the occasional presence of chaos monster Georgina Sparks (the late, great Michelle Trachtenberg) and Kristen Bell returning to provide the show's voiceover didn't help. The "Gossip Girl" reboot stunk, and it's entirely because it was far too self-aware ... and also, nobody married a secretly evil prince.
Both versions of "Gossip Girl" are streaming on HBO Max now.