Hey Upper East Siders! As we all await the reboot of the pop-culture phenomenon that is Gossip Girl, it’s important to note that there are some not-so-serious and utterly shocking revisions to the show. For one, the haughty black limousines that chauffeured Manhattan’s elite have been exchanged for Ubers. The scandalous web blog will be replaced with an Instagram account (essentially our modern-day IG gossip columns). And our once-vapid leading stars might be having intellectual conversations of generational wealth on the steps of Constance Billard.
In an interview with Variety, showrunner Josh Safran revealed that the revival will shift its gaze to the gravity of the social authority affixed to wealth, rather than focus on the characters’ ostentatious displays of luxury. “These kids wrestle with their privilege in a way that I think the original didn’t,” said Safran. “In light of [Black Lives Matter], in light of a lot of things, even going back to Occupy Wall Street, things have shifted.” The 2007 original was undoubtedly fraught with its exorbitant glorification of privilege but it is exactly what viewers at the time had an insatiable appetite for — a glimpse into the insular aristocracy of the upper-upper class. However, the sociopolitical climate is different now and the hyper-connectivity of social media definitely puts us in proximity to the oblivion of the wealthy more than ever before. He continued, “I think the first [Gossip Girl] showed a little bit of wealth porn or privilege porn, like, ‘Look at these cars, or here’s a montage of the best plated food you’ve ever seen,’” said Safran.
In the first iteration, Dan Humphrey (played by the incomparable Penn Badgley) was a reflection of how easily we can become engulfed in the immoral compass of the all-powerful rich as we climb the social ladder. Now, Zoya Lott (played by Whitney Peak) will take on the role as the incoming scholarship student exploring proximity to vast privilege for the first time. This time, Safran says, will be “more in wanting to be like the characters and less having what they have.” He adds “through Zoya’s eyes, you get a little bit of, ‘Careful what you wish for.’” We can all appreciate a smidgen of social consciousness here and there, but as one Twitter user put it, we all hope there’s some “Kim, there’s people that are dying” detachment left as fodder for the OG fans.
