After six seasons of Gossip Girl‘s pretty wild plot lines (Chuck’s dad coming back to life still stumps me), you’d think the creators of the show used all their best ideas, but in an interview with Vulture for the 10-year anniversary of GG‘s premiere, co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and executive producer Joshua Safran revealed some potential storylines that didn’t pan out.
I could talk about Gossip Girl every day.
— Joshua Safran (@Anthologist) September 15, 2017
1. Eric van der Woodsen as Gossip Girl
Before they had definitively decided on Dan as GG, the idea of Eric being the infamous blogger was popular. At one point in the early years of the show, there was a very brief mention of a rumor that Eric was Gossip Girl, which pretty much confirmed for me that he wasn’t, but I guess it actually was given some serious thought. “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 realized we couldn’t go down that road anymore, so we abandoned him,” Safran said. Honestly, thank God, because Eric is just too nice to be a good Gossip Girl.
2. Nate Archibald as Gossip Girl
Nate never sent in any tips to Gossip Girl, which could’ve meant he was GG, but the creators chose to not pursue this idea. “But in the end, it had to be Dan, because Dan’s a writer, observer, and could write in different styles,” Safran said. Once again, good. I don’t need them ruining Nate for me.
3. A Katy Perry cameo
A lot of celebrities wanted to appear on the show. I mean, who wouldn’t want to guest star on Gossip Girl? Unfortunately, a lot of these appearances didn’t work out. In regards to Katy Perry, Safran said, “It was around the time of a record release of hers, and she had too many obligations so we couldn’t make it work.” Dang.
4. A box of dildos, courtesy of Georgina Sparks
The show was already pretty sexy for network television, but the head honchos had even more sex planned. For one, Georgina was supposed to send Serena a box of dildos, but TV regulations wouldn’t allow for it. “There were dildos she sent to Dan at the house, and we had these really huge dildos in this house that Penn [Badgley] was so shocked to see—but we cut it because you couldn’t show them on air,” Safran said. That definitely would’ve been an iconic Georgina moment.
5. An episode at the Met Ball
Given the incredible fashion on Gossip Girl, seeing the characters attend the Met Ball would’ve made total sense. “We got really close, but it was just too complicated and secretive to shoot at the Met Ball,” Savage said. “They were adamant that the Ahh! moment when people walked through the doors could not be spoiled by a production crew having been there, even if it hadn’t aired on TV yet.” Seeing Blake Lively and Leighton Meester at the Met Ball IRL has given us a taste of the amazing style that could’ve been. *sigh* I don’t blame the organizers, though, because Chuck and Blair would’ve put Kimye to shame.
6. Old Jenny Humphrey staying the course
Did you hate Jenny Humphrey’s shift to the dark side? Well, her character was a reflection of Taylor Momsen’s personal evolution outside of the show. The creators couldn’t maintain Jenny’s innocent, good girl persona when Taylor was making changes—like edgier hair and a darker reputation as lead singer of her band, Pretty Reckless—that didn’t vibe with that. “But I would say Jenny’s transformation to a darker character wouldn’t have happened had Taylor wanted to be Jenny,” Safran said. “It was hard at a certain point to write for the old Jenny; we had to write for the new Taylor.” The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because she’s dead.
7. More diverse casting
Hindsight is always 20-20, and the creators said looking back, they would’ve tried to explore more diverse characters and plot lines. “When I look back on Gossip Girl, the only things I regret were not as much representation for people of color and gay story lines,” Safran said. “Those are the two things I think we probably could have delved into more deeply, but other than that, I only regret things like not showing Chuck finger Blair and the dildos and other sexual stuff.”
Despite what didn’t make it to air, the show fit a lot of quality stuff into six seasons. We can at least thank our lucky stars that Chuck and Blair made the cut.