The Gossip Girl reboot premieres today and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve been waiting a while for this reboot and judging by the trailers, the cast looks bigger and more diverse than the original. But still, we have one question—why isn’t the original cast returning? The only member returning is the voice of Gossip Girl, Kristen Bell. So, why is that?
The show’s creator Joshua Safran made the choice not to feature the original cast members. “We made a decision early on—and I was nervous about this decision, but definitely came to believe it was right—that the audience would never accept these characters if they were in the shadow of the original characters,” he told The Daily Beast.
He did share there would be some familiar faces, but they wouldn’t be the main cast. The reason is the show’s cast is just too big—there are 16 regulars and 22 recurring characters instead of the original’s 12.
“There isn’t enough screen time,” Safran added. “If Blair showed up for two scenes, you’d say, ‘I want more Blair.’ The decision was: Let’s get season 1 under our belt, and should we get season 2, we’ll have the chance to bring in cameos that are more than glorified cameos but actually give them storylines.”
This means there’s potential to see Blake Lively’s Serena van der Woodsen, Leighton Meester’s Blaire Waldorf, Penn Badgley’s Dan Humphrey, Chace Crawford’s Nate Archibald, and Ed Westwick’s Chuck Bass in Season 2. We can’t wait!
