After six seasons, countless text blasts, and endless love triangle combinations, The CW’s Gossip Girl bowed out by answering the show’s biggest question: Which one of the show’s characters was secretly the vicious anonymous blogger? The answer satisfied pretty much no one. Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) was revealed to be Gossip Girl, citing some F. Scott Fitzgerald nonsense (how very Dan) as the reason he destroyed his own sister’s social life, told everyone his ex-girlfriend had an STI, and blew up his own relationships. As it turns out, though, Dan wasn’t the only “Gossip Boy” the writers had in mind for the big reveal.
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At Vulture Festival, writer and executive producer Joshua Safran revealed that the writers toyed with the idea of making Chace Crawford’s Nate Gossip Girl instead.
“One of the writers realized that Nate had never sent a tip in to Gossip Girl, which is true at least through the end of Season 5,” Safran explained. “Nate never sent in a tip in through all of those episodes, which is when we're like, 'Oh, well then he's Gossip Girl.'"
Before that, Safran said he wanted Eric (Connor Paolo), brother of Blake Lively’s Serena, to have the honor. He recurred on the series through season 4.
However, it’s worth wondering: If there was no designated Gossip Girl from the beginning, was it really worth it to do a big reveal? No matter who the writers picked in the final season, it would have made little sense after not considering all the mechanics behind it. Even longtime fan favorite for Gossip Girl, maid Dorota (Zuzanna Szadkowski), would have never hurt Blair (Leighton Meester) with the slander put forth on the site.
The real point of Gossip Girl is that, no matter who is running the blog, everyone (save for Nate, apparently) sent in tips, making them all complicit in spreading lies and scandal. That may be how the forthcoming Gossip Girl reboot will handle their anonymous blogger: The HBO Max series will reportedly focus on social media, where anyone can spread whatever gossip they choose.
If there is another anonymous blogger on the reboot...maybe it'll be a girl this time? Just a thought.