The upcoming season two finale on Thursday, January 26 will serve as the series finale.
“We are very grateful to showrunner/executive producer Joshua Safran, and executive producers Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz for bringing us back to the Upper East Side and all the scandals at Constance Billard,” HBO Max said in a statement. “Although we are not moving forward with a third season of Gossip Girl, we thank them for the enticing love triangles, calculated backstabbing and impeccable fashion this series brought to a new audience.”
The sequel kicked off in July 2021, setting a record as HBO Max's most-watched opening weekend for an original series at the time. It received an early renewal for a second season in November 2021, before Season 1B kicked off. Despite the great initial interest sparked by fans of the original series, the sequel failed to capture the zeitgeist the way the 2007-2012 CW series did. The second season fared better with critics than the first, with a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score versus 69% for the first season.
“It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce Gossip Girl will not be continuing on HBO Max,” Safran said in a message to fans Thursday morning. “Thank you for watching, and I hope you’ll tune into the finale next Thursday to see how it all comes together. xoxo”
Safran, who also worked on the CW series before helming the reboot, hinted that this may not be the end for the Gossip Girl franchise.
“A big thank you to all the GG fans around the world. You’re the reason we came back in the first place, and who knows, maybe the reason we will meet again. Much love,” he wrote.
While HBO Max has implemented some of its company-wide cost cutting efforts over the past six months, the cancellation of Gossip Girl (2021) is not viewed as a financial decision, but as a result of the show not being able to break through like HBO Max's. revival of another YA series, Pretty Little Liars, has done.
The new Gossip Girl (2021) follows a new generation of New York private school teens who are introduced to Gossip Girl's social surveillance. The series explores how much social media - and the landscape of New York itself - has changed in the intervening years. Featuring a diverse cast and queer storytelling, the reboot just garnered a GLAAD Award nomination.
The series stars Jordan Alexander, Eli Brown, Thomas Doherty, Tavi Gevinson, Emily Alyn Lind, Evan Mock, Zion Moreno, Whitney Peak, Savannah Lee Smith, Johnathan Fernandez, Adam Chanler-Berat, Todd Almond, Laura Benanti, Grace Duah and Megan Ferguson in the lead roles. Kristen Bell from the original series returns as the narrator.
Gossip Girl (2021) is produced by Fake Empire and Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Studios. The series is written, produced and developed by Safran of Random Acts. Also executive producing are Schwartz and Savage of Fake Empire, and Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo of Alloy Entertainment. Fake Empire's Lis Rowinski serves as co-executive producer.
