‘Gossip Girl’ Was Originally Supposed to Be Nate, Not Dan
Dan Humphrey wasn't supposed to be Gossip Girl... instead the writers wanted it to be Nate.
If you're like us, then you're probably still trying to make sense out of the show's finale. After keeping us guessing for five whole seasons, fans were finally told who the real Gossip Girl — and let's just say many were left underwhelmed and pretty confused that Penn Badley's character was the all-knowing blogger all along.
For starters, it didn't quite add up that Mr. Lonely Boy was the person who tormented Serena, Blair, Chuck and the rest of the Upper East Siders for all those years, mainly because there were so many plotholes. Now, it turns out, it was actually supposed to be Nate Archibald... and that actually would have made a lot more sense.
During this year's Vulture Festival, Gossip Girl writer and executive producer Joshua Safran revealed they chose Dan after he left the show at the end of Season 5. According to Buzzfeed, he said Dan wasn't his first choice and that he originally wanted Eric [Van der Woodsen], aka Serena's little brother, to be GG.
He explained, "We worked hard to kind of lay in tiny seeds about it being Eric, and then the NY Post wrote an article saying that Gossip Girl was Eric so we were like, 'We gotta scratch that.'"
"Then... one of the writers realized that Nate had never sent a tip in to Gossip Girl, which is true at least through the end of season five," Safran, who will be involved with the upcoming reboot, continued. "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.'"
"But, I understand why Dan was Gossip Girl. I just had my heart set on Nate," he admitted.
"I like to joke that Dan was Gossip Girl because I had left the show by then," Safran added. "Dan was not my intended Gossip Girl, so honestly, you'd have to ask someone else."