Gossip Girl writer reveals which character was meant to be Gossip Girl, says ‘it makes much more sense’
Many fans found the series’ reveal to be underwhelming and implausible
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Your support makes all the difference.A writer on Gossip Girl has revealed which character was originally supposed to be the person behind the “Gossip Girl” blog.
The hit drama – based on the novels by Cecily von Ziegesar – followed the lives of a group of wealthy teenagers living on the the upper east side in New York City.
The show is narrated by an unknown, omniscient blogger named “Gossip Girl” (voiced by Kristen Bell) who routinely reveals secrets to stir drama across the show’s six seasons.
Fans of the series will recall that the person behind the account was finally revealed to be Dan Humphrey (played by Penn Badgley) in a twist that many fans criticised as underwhelming and implausible.
Now, however, Joshua Safran – an original writer on the series – has revealed it was a different character who was originally intended to be Gossip Girl.
Safran told The Daily Beast: “I wanted it to be Nate, and it actually makes much more sense when it’s Nate – even when it doesn’t make sense. I mean, it would have been great to never reveal it.”
He went on to explain that it was Nate (portrayed by Chace Crawford) who was originally intended to be Gossip Girl.
“It was Nate until the day I left,” he said. “I think we all came to the conclusion that it might be Nate by the end of season four, and then we spent season five teeing it up.
“If you watch it, there are many clues to it being Nate. But I also think weirdly, in noir fashion, it’s great that we dropped a red herring. But it wasn’t as organic as Dan.”
Safran went on to explain the reasons for why Nate would have been a feasible choice, stating “it was based on this idea that he’d felt so guilty for sleeping with Serena (Blake Lively) that he had to create an alter ego to bring us all to it”.
With Dan as Gossip Girl, however, Safran said that Badgley’s outsider character was a credible option because “he wanted to find a way in [to the ‘cool’ crowd]”.
Gossip Girl ran from 2007 to 2012. A reboot of the series was announced last year.
Safran serves as a showrunner on the forthcoming reboot, which will air in the UK on BBC One later this year.
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