Seven years after its series finale, the cult classic Gossip Girl is getting a reboot, but the fans of the original can expect this version to look entirely different.

In an interview with Vulture, Joshua Safran revealed that the leads in HBO Max’s upcoming reiteration of The CW classic will be non-white and that there will be a lot more queer content.

“This time around the leads are nonwhite,” Safran said. “There will also be a lot of queer content on this show. It is very much dealing with the way the world looks now, where wealth and privilege come from, and how you handle that.”

The teen drama, which ran for six seasons on the CW from 2007 to 2012, focused on the lives of privileged teenagers living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Despite its popularity, a core criticism of Gossip Girl was its lack of inclusion when it came to characters of color and queer characters on the show.

“There was not a lot of representation the first time around on the show. I was the only gay writer I think the entire time I was there,” Safran said. “Even when I went to private school in New York in the ’90s, the school didn’t necessarily reflect what was on Gossip Girl.”

The series is currently in development and should be expected to air on HBO Max in 2020 or 2021.

 

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Photo: The CW

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