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Nate was originally supposed to be Gossip Girl instead of Dan
12 November 2019, 18:55
Hey, Upper Eastsiders. As we all know, Dan Humphrey was revealed as Gossip Girl in season 6 but did you know that Nate Archibald and Eric van der Woodsen were also considered for the insider reveal?
Hey Upper Eastsiders. It's been nearly seven years since Gossip Girl aired its final episodes on the CW and, if you're anything like us, you're still haunted by Gossip Girl's big identity reveal. Yes, after six seasons, Gossip Girl turned out to be Lonely Boy himself, Dan Humphrey, yet something about GG's unmasking didn't quite curl over. If you ever got the distinct feeling that Dan as Gossip Girl didn't make the most sense, that might be because Nate Archibald and Eric Van Der Woodsen were both potential Gossip Girls before writers landed on Dan.
READ MORE: QUIZ: Which Gossip Girl character are you most like?
The Gossip Girl reboot is on the way and the writers and producers are ready to spill all the relevant tea about the original series. At this year's Vulture Festival, GG Executive Producer Joshua Safran revealed that, uh, actually Dan wasn't his first or even second choice for the anonymous troublemaker.
"I like to joke that Dan was Gossip Girl because I had left the show by then," Safran explained. "Dan was not my intended Gossip Girl."
"But I understand why Dan was Gossip Girl. I just had my heart set on Nate." Yes. We also would have liked to see it.
Serena Van Der Woodsen's little brother Eric was also a contender for Gossip Girl, Safran says. He says they'd started dropping hints that Eric was GG, but a New York Post article identifying Eric as Gossip Girl convinced them to change course.
He added: "We were like 'we gotta scratch that.'"
As for Nate, writers were pretty settled on him as Gossip Girl at the end of season five, largely because he'd never sent in information to GG at that point in the series.
"One of the writers realised that Nate had never sent a tip in to Gossip Girl, which is true through the end of season five," Safran continued. "Nate never sent in a tip in through all of those episodes, which is why we're like, 'Oh, well then he's Gossip Girl.'"
Gossip Girl fans will know that the reveal of Dan as GG was explained as him being the ultimate outsider. We learned that he was on the periphery of all the drama, yet close enough to be able to mimic the language of his elite classmates and keep up with their wild ways. Of course, when you think about all the plot holes the reveal created...well, it's best not to think about that!
With the reboot on the way, Kristen Bell returning as narrator, and the show teasing a more diverse cast, we wonder whether we'll end up with Dan as Gossip Girl once more.
