'Gossip Girl' Reboot Delayed Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

Hello Upper East Siders, there is bad news for you. The highly-anticipated reboot of “Gossip Girl” has been delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview with Vulture, Kevin Reilly, HBO Max chief content officer, confirmed that the production on the show has been put on hold because of the global health crisis. Reilly further stated that the series will now be available for streaming in 2021 on the network’s streaming service.

The CCO of the streaming service also shared that the show was still in “pre-production” and the crew was all set to start filming.

“They had not even started production yet; they were in pre-production and ready to roll,” Reilly said.

The novel coronavirus has forced the entertainment industry to halt the productions on various movies and TV shows. The virus has spread all over the world and was labeled a “pandemic” by the World Health Organization (WHO). As a result, most of the countries had to impose nationwide lockdowns to prevent the disease from spreading further.

Speaking about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, Reilly noted that it is sad that “meaningful” things had to take a back seat and many high-profile shows had to be pushed back because of the life-threatening illness.

“Things that would have been really meaningful and high profile have gotten pushed back,” Reilly said.

The original series ran for six seasons and a total of 121 episodes from 2007-2012. Kristen Bell, who was a part of all the episodes and also appeared in the final episode of the show as herself, will be returning for the reboot as well.

The 39-year-old actress, who voiced the anonymous Gossip Girl character in the original drama series, will return as the voice of the narrator in the upcoming series.

For the uninitiated, the new take on the show will be taking place many years after the events in the original series. According to Harper’s Bazaar, the show takes place eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens are introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl.

The original show creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are also involved in the upcoming show and will serve as executive producers.

Emily Alyn Lind, Whitney Peak, Eli Brown, Johnathan Fernandez, and Jason Gotay will be starring in the reboot.