HBO Max’s ‘Gossip Girl’ Part 2 Will Feature More OG Cast Cameos, Thanksgiving Episode

Plus: Series creator Joshua Safran tells TheWrap Season 1 won’t include cotillion — though future seasons could

Gossip Girl
HBO Max

Though it will be a while until you see new episodes of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reboot, the wait will be worth it, as you’re going to get more cameos from alums of the original CW series when the show returns — plus a continuation of the Thanksgiving episode tradition started by the teen drama’s predecessor.

“There’s no series regular from the original coming back. Maybe that’s not true — sorry. None of the core five or six kids are in the back half. But there are cameos from original cast members and there are references,” reboot creator Joshua Safran told TheWrap about the second half of the first season. “Even just as simple as Episode 7 is a Thanksgiving episode. And you know, Thanksgiving on ‘Gossip Girl,’ it’s a traditional event on our show and a traditional event in the world. And then, yeah, there are cameos and callbacks and some fun stuff.”

Part 1 of the “Gossip Girl” reboot’s first season included the appearances of Nelly Yuki (Yin Chang) and Milo, the now-preteen son of Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg), both of whom were minor characters on The CW’s “Gossip Girl.” The episodes also had multiple direct references to leads Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) and Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford).

And if we know those “core” stars aren’t coming back in the remaining six episodes of Season 1, then it’s time to start theorizing about who could.

One thing we can tell you for certain is you won’t be seeing Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander), Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak), Obie Bergmann IV (Eli Brown) and the other members of the new GG generation participate in cotillion in the back half of the season, which is debuting in November.

But that’s not to say you couldn’t see a recurrence of the classic high-society event that appeared multiple times in the original CW series in potential future seasons of HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl.” (Here’s where we have to note yet again that the “Gossip Girl” reboot has not yet been renewed for Season 2. We know, we know.)

“You will not see cotillion this season,” Safran said. “I definitely do not rule out cotillion in the future, but this show takes place between September and December. And if I recall correctly, when we looked up cotillion, maybe — I don’t know why. It didn’t fall then, or maybe we just decided not to do it this time around. But there would definitely be some version of cotillion in the future, because it’s ‘Gossip Girl.’ Cotillion is, like… even the first time around, when I was growing up in New York City, cotillion wasn’t a thing that I heard about. But I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. So I think we would just try to find a version of cotillion that wasn’t … It’s like, do you see Julien and Zoya being cotillion people? I don’t know. So I guess all this is to say, we have to find our Julien and Zoya way of cotillion-ing.”

For a full breakdown of the “Gossip Girl” Season 1 Part 1 finale, readers can find TheWrap’s post-mortem interview with Safran here.

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