Gossip Girl Showrunner On Bringing Back Original Characters In Episode 10

HBO Max’s Gossip Girl reboot showrunner Joshua Safran explains how the original character cameos in the Hanukkah episode came to fruition.

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for Gossip Girl 2021 season 1 episode 10.

The showrunner of the Gossip Girl reboot explained the process of getting original characters to return to the show in episode 10. The reboot of the soapy teen drama, which originally ran from 2007 to 2012, debuted on HBO Max in July. The show brought back original narrator Kristen Bell to oversee a cast of newbies including Jordan Alexander, Whitney Peak, Tavi Gevinson, Eli Brown, Thomas Doherty, Emily Alyn Lind, Evan Mock, Zión Moreno, and Savannah Lee Smith. Gossip Girl, which has already been renewed for season 2, aired the final 3 episodes of the current season today, December 2, 2021.

Gossip Girl season 1 episode 10, “Final Cancellation,” was a special Hanukkah episode of the series. The episode involved Lind’s Audrey getting her mother invited to a dinner hosted by Eleanor Waldorf (Margaret Colin), the mother of Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester). This scene reunited the actress, who appeared on 34 episodes of the original series, with other original characters Cyrus Rose (Wallace Shawn), her second husband, Dorota Kishlovsky (Zuzanna Szadkowski), her maid, and Vanya (Aaron Schwartz), Dorota’s husband.

Speaking with TVLine, showrunner Joshua Safran explains what it was like getting these actors back in the same room together. Safran says he got Szadkowski on board first, and then the rest of the pieces fell into place, allowing this group of people, who he describes as “icons as humans, and as their characters,” to come together onscreen once more. He also shares two fun facts, explaining that the Hanukkah prayer they sing was actually performed by several Jewish crew members, and that they unfortunately didn’t have the budget to bring back to the Waldorfs’ penthouse apartment, which accounts for the change of scenery. Read the full quote below:

Just being with them was a joy, because they themselves are icons as humans, and as their characters. [I reached out to Szadkowski first] and it was just a hop, skip and a jump to the rest of them. Being there to watch them was a joy, writing for them was a joy and making Margaret speak Yiddish was a joy.

I don’t know how it happened, but there were only three Jews on set that day. Wally’s not Jewish, even though Cyrus is. The three Jews on set were me, [co-executive producer] April Blair and my assistant. We had to lead everyone in the prayer. So when you hear the prayer in the episode, it’s actually us singing. It was the Hanukkah episode with no Jews.

The thing that’s saddest to me was that we had to strike the Waldorf penthouse at the end of the first Gossip Girl. To rebuild it just for this sequence would have been cost prohibitive, so we had to come up with a reason for why they aren’t living there anymore. It would have been great.

This is certainly the biggest collection of original series cameos that the Gossip Girl reboot has boasted thus far. The first half of the season included glimpses of Nelly Yuki (Yin Chang) and Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg), but this is the closest fans have gotten to the beloved core group of characters. Even if Blair and her friends haven’t yet returned to the screen, having her parents appear in this episode allowed fans to keep in touch with how the character is doing.

Many of the stars of Gossip Girl have gone on to become huge stars in their own right, which would prevent them from being easily scheduled to return. For instance, Penn Badgley is currently starring on the Netflix stalker hit You, and Blake Lively is navigating a massive film career and superstar marriage to Ryan Reynolds. Although this season couldn’t feature them, hopefully the show can cultivate enough popularity and longevity that they’re able to return when they have the opportunity.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/gossip-girl-reboot-show-episode-10-cameos-showrunner/