Gossip Girl reboot series production delayed due to COVID-19 outbreak as its debut gets pushed 2021

Fans of the original Gossip Girl series who were hoping to see the reboot later this year are about to be rather disappointed.

HBO Max chief content officer Kevin Reilly revealed in a new interview with Vulture that production has been pushed due to COVID-19.

He added that filming hadn’t even begun yet, though it was about to start when the COVID-19 outbreak started to spread rapidly. 

‘They hadn’t even started production yet; they were in pre-production and ready to roll,’ Reilly said.

With the production delay, the series is now expected to debut sometime in 2021, and not later in 2020 as originally planned.

Reilly didn’t offer any timetable as to when production might begin, but even if filming does start by late summer, it won’t be ready to air until 2021.

The original series followed a group of privileged private school teenagers who live on New York’s Upper East Side, whose lives are always being watched by a secretive blogger exposing their secrets.

Blake Lively starred as Serena van der Woodsen, alongside Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf, Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey, Chace Crawford as Nate Archibald, Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass, Kelly Rutherford as Lily van der Woodsen and Matthew Settle as Rufus Humphrey.

The series, created by Josh Savage and Stephanie Schwartz, based on the book by Cecily von Ziegesar, ran for six seasons between 2007 and 2012. 

Joshua Safran, who served as an executive producer and writer on the original series, will serve as creator and executive producer on the reboot.

The new show will be set eight years after the events of the original series, after the original Gossip Girl website ‘went dark.’

The reboot will follow a new generation of teens who are introduced to, ‘the social surveillance of Gossip Girl,’ while also addressing how much social media and New York City itself have changed since the original show. 

The reboot has cast Emily Alyn Lind as the main character Audrey, with Kristen Bell returning to narrate as Gossip Girl.

The cast also includes Eli Brown, Adam Chanler-Berat, Thomas Doherty, Jonathan Fernandez, Tavi Gevinson, Jason Gotay, Zion Moreno and Whitney Peak.

Aside from Kristen Bell returning as the narrator, there is no indication yet that any of the original stars are returning, though Ed Westwick recently said he thinks it’s unlikely he’ll be back.