“Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite…”
Over the course of six seasons and 121 episodes of Gossip Girl, we got used to the soothing voice of Kristen Bell introducing us to the drama-packed lives of New York City’s most privileged teens.
Narrated by an anonymous blogger only known as Gossip Girl, the hit book series-turned-TV show centred around elite adolescents on the Upper East Side. She told us gossipy details here and there as she followed the enviable lives of the show’s five main characters – Chuck Bass, Serena van der Woodsen, Dan Humphrey, Nate Archibald and Blair Waldorf – and side characters Vanessa Abrams and Jenny Humphrey.
Only when the show ended in 2012 (yes, it’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since it started in 2007) did we finally find out Gossip Girl’s true identity: the one and only Dan Humphrey.
But, it wasn’t supposed to be that way.
Josh Schwartz, the show’s co-creator along with Stephanie Savage, recently revealed a different ending.
“I always thought it was Eric until the end of season two, and I even guided it that way, but when the New York Post revealed it was Eric – and I still don’t know how that happened, I think they were just guessing – and we realised we couldn’t go down that road anymore, so we abandoned him,” he told Vulture.
We must admit we can see how Gossip Girl could have been Serena's brother Eric van der Woodsen, and Schwartz said that the show’s producers even considered Nate Archibald as a potential candidate. However, in the end ‘she’ could only have been one person.
“It had to be Dan, because Dan’s a writer, observer, and could write in different styles,” said Schwartz.
In an interview in 2015, Penn Badgley – who played the character of Dan Humphrey – admitted he wasn’t entirely convinced by the twist ending.
“It doesn't make sense at all. It wouldn't have made sense for anybody. Gossip Girl doesn't make sense!” he told People.
Before concluding: “It made enough sense. He was a writer.”
Images: Rex Features / Warner Bros / CW
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