The scripts were written pre-COVID and before the Black Lives Matter uprisings and similar events from last year, but Safran said the writers did use the time when production was shut down to fine-tune the scripts. “If you’re on Tik Tok, if you are on Instagram, if you spend time actually looking at what’s out there, you’ll see how socially conscious young people are these days,” Safran said, “and it doesn’t matter whether they are what their, sort of, economic arena that there is, they actually are all talking about it in a way that we definitely didn’t talk about it when I was their age.” Monet and Luna tell Julian to get over her ex in a conversation that dissects the media’s history of bulling newly single female celebrities that includes the line “f-k the patriarchy.” He and Zoya bond over discussions of classism.
Obie supports those picketing his family’s real estate development by bringing them donuts and volunteers for a non-profit. The latest installment discusses generational wealth and inherent privilege - which reflects upon the conversations many actual people are having after the coronavirus pandemic and movements like Black Lives Matter brought these topics to the mainstream. When Nate Archibald’s ( Chace Crawford) family fortune was diminishing, his parents plotted ways to find new investments. They took private jets, rode in limos and basically schemed and harassed each other until they became adults with jobs and amassed more wealth.
Meester’s Blair, Lively’s Serena and other characters from the original series mostly took their wealth for granted. Activism and Influencer Culture Are Main Topics “And I think a lot of the world believes that that because the queer community has more rights than we’ve ever had before, even if we still don’t have all the rights that we should have.”įor Aki, “it’s a multiple-season journey for him to gain comfort and clarity about sexuality,” Safran said.Ģ. “We discussed the idea that most television shows these days, posit that it’s easy to come out in this world,” Safran said. And that definitely would never happen now,” he said.Ĭonversely, in this iteration of the show, Aki begins to question his sexuality. Eric’s sexuality was weaponized by Gossip Girl. “It was important to not make it a story worthy of shame or guilt. Safran, who is openly gay, employed several queer writers and there were many talks about sexuality - both their experiences with it and how it’s seen today. “Any show that you work on is its chance to show how you, yourself, have grown and changed and learned,” Joshua Safran, the creator of the new Gossip Girl who also wrote on the original series, told Rotten Tomatoes. Max also has openly queer parents, played by John Benjamin Hickey and Todd Almond - as opposed to Leighton Meester’s Blair Waldorf, whose dad Harold (John Shea) was closeted until he left his wife for another man.
Many, like Max and Monet, are openly queer. In the story’s main season 1 plot point, Whitney Peak’s new girl, Zoya Lott, will infiltrate this group. Lead by Jordan Alexander’s Julien Calloway, they include Emily Alyn Lind’s icy bookworm Audrey Hope Eli Brown’s white, liberal and guilted Otto “Obie” Bergmann IV Thomas Doherty’s party-loving Max Wolfe Evan Mock’s pretty but sometimes slow-on-the-uptake Akeno “Aki” Menzies Zión Moreno’s master of the beauty contour Luna La and Savannah Smith’s burgeoning publicist Monet de Haan. The actors who play the kids at the center of the story in the new version come from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Connor Paolo’s Eric van der Woodsen - the younger brother of Blake Lively’s Serena - comes out to Chuck before his family because he knows Chuck won’t judge him (their mom, Kelly Rutherford‘s Lily, did have a hard time with the news). But almost all of its leads were white and almost no one was queer ( Ed Westwick‘s Chuck Bass admittance that he’s kissed guys aside).
The first Gossip Girl brought up plenty of important issues, such as consent and cyberbullying. A sequel to the series, which focuses on another generation of elite New Yorkers, premieres July 8 on streaming service HBO Max.īut have things changed that much? Here’s what you need to know about the new take on Gossip Girl. Well, Gossip Girl (and, therefore, Gossip Girl the character) is getting a makeover for the post-millennial crowd. In the nascent days of smartphones, micro-blogging, and social media, The CW premiered Gossip Girl, a teen soap about rich kids causing havoc under the watchful eye of a mysterious blogger known only as “Gossip Girl.” It aired for six seasons, starting in 2007, and had an audience so loyal that there are some who are still upset about the finale’s reveal of who was behind that account.