Kristen Bell Returns as Voice of Gossip Girl in HBO Max’s Sequel Series

Kristen Bell Returns as Voice of Gossip Girl in HBO Max’s Sequel Series

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Golden Globe nominee Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, The Good Place) has officially signed on to return as the omniscient narrator of HBO Max’s forthcoming Gossip Girl spinoff sequel series from original creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Bell has been the voice of the titular narrator since the show’s first season and had made only one cameo in the series finale.

“Kristen Bell has always been and will always be the voice of Gossip Girl,” the producers said in statement.

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The Gossip Girl sequel series was given a straight-to-series order at HBO Max last July. It will consists of 10 episodes which will be set eight years after Dan Humphrey shuts down the Gossip Girl website. The series will now follow a new generation of elite New York teens who end up being introduced to the social surveillance of the Gossip Girl site. The show will explore how much social media has evolved, as well as the overall landscape of New York City.

The sequel will be written by original showrunner Joshua Safran, who will also served as an executive producer along with Schwartz, Savage and Leslie Morgenstein. Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, both studios that produced the original, are back on board for this new go-round.

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The original Gossip Girl series ran on-air for six seasons from 2007-2012 on The CW. The series was based on author Cecily von Ziegesar’s book series of the same name. It starred Kristen Bell as the narrator, Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen, Leighton Meester as Blair Waldorf, Penn Badgley as Dan Humphrey, Chase Crawford as Nate Archibald, Ed Westwick as Chuck Bass and Taylor Momsen as Jenny Humphrey. Although the series wasn’t known for getting high ratings, it still gained a lot of recognition among its young viewers at the time and had garnered a devoted fanbase.