The Original Identity of Gossip Girl Will Shock You

*Spoilers*

 

What with the Gossip Girl reboot in the works, it seems only fitting that we rewatch every existing episode on Netflix. As well as gushing over the brilliant outfits and things we didn't know, we can't help but think Gossip Girl's true identity makes little to no sense at all.

 

It turns out, this might be down to the fact the series finale wasn't always meant to end the way that it did, with Penn Badgley's Dan Humphrey unveiled as the show's anonymous narrator and Gossip Girl.

 

According to a new interview with executive producer Joshua Safran, who spoke at Vulture Festival over the weekend, the original identity of Gossip Girl was actually meant to be either Connor Paolo's Eric van der Woodsen (Serena's younger brother) or Chace Crawford's Nate Archibald.

 

"Dan was not my intended Gossip Girl," he began, via Buzzfeed, before explaining "We worked hard to kind of lay in tiny seeds about it being Eric." But their plan was ruined when an article in the New York Post guessed that it was Eric, forcing producers to come up with another plan.

 

"We were like, "We gotta scratch that,"' he continued. "One of the writers realised that Nate had never sent a tip in to Gossip Girl, which is true at least through the end of season five.

 

"Nate never sent in a tip in through all of those episodes, which is when we’re like, 'Oh, well then he’s Gossip Girl.'"

 

So, how did it end up being Dan Humphrey? Joshua left Gossip Girl in its penultimate fifth season, and even he was surprised by the final series.

 

"I like to joke that Dan was Gossip Girl because I had left the show by then,' he said. 'But, I understand why Dan was Gossip Girl. I just had my heart set on Nate."

 

Well, it's better for Gossip Girl's true identity to make zero sense than for the secret to be spoiled by an article ahead of time, amirite?