Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley React to Their Gossip Girl Endings

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Did Queen B and Lonely Boy have their happy ever after?

Leighton Meester and Penn Badgley have been revisiting the ending of Gossip Girl. Over a decade after the show finished, the actors discussed Blair Waldorf (Meester) and Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) getting married, as well as Dan Humphrey (Badgley) finally marrying Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) in the series finale.

On his podcast Podcrushed, Penn said he believes Dan and Blair ultimately ended up with the right people. He feels Dan was meant to be with Serena, and Blair with Chuck.

And the I Love LA actress echoed her costar’s point, adding, “I think you’re right.”

Dan and Blair both dated other people – Blair even almost married into Monaco royalty – but they eventually became a couple in the fifth season. However, Blair ultimately fell in love with the wealthy heir who lived at the New York Palace Hotel.

Honestly, as someone who’s followed the Upper East Side drama for years, I was a little disappointed with how the Gossip Girl reveal played out. Seeing Dan Humphrey unmasked as the blogger in the final season? It just didn’t quite land for me, and a lot of fans felt the same way, I think.

I found out about it while I was getting my hair and makeup done,” the 39-year-old said, recalling the moment on the Call Her Daddy podcast last April. “My first reaction was just shock – I was trying to wrap my head around it, and it was difficult. I just thought, ‘Okay…’

He actually shared that everyone on the show was rooting for Blair’s housekeeper, Dorota (Zuzanna Szadkowski).

Penn explained they were looking for someone to be a main cast member, saying, ‘It had to be one of the six central characters, or people just wouldn’t pay attention.’

The show’s creators originally intended Serena’s brother, Eric van der Woodsen (played by Connor Paolo), to be revealed as Gossip Girl, but the information was leaked, forcing them to change their plans.

Joshua Safran, an executive producer, revealed to Vulture in 2017 that he initially believed—and even steered the show towards—Eric being the culprit, right up until the end of season two. He was surprised when the New York Post correctly revealed Eric’s identity, and he still isn’t sure how they figured it out. After that leak, the writers decided they couldn’t continue with that storyline and dropped the Eric plotline.

Everyone on the Upper East Side seems to have secrets, and this teen drama is full of them! Keep reading to find out more.

Spotted: Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick delivering major chemistry. 

Seeing the last scene of the first episode—where Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf watched Serena van der Woodsen leave a party with Dan and Jenny Humphrey—inspired the show’s creators, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, to develop the famous relationship between Chuck and Blair.

Josh described an instant connection between them, saying it was immediately obvious and enjoyable. He felt that was when their relationship really began to take shape.

Watching it felt like a real discovery,” Stephanie said. “It reminded me of Dangerous Liaisons – the dynamic between Valmont and Merteuil. They have this complicated relationship where they both love and despise each other, and they’re always plotting things together. It’s just a really compelling and dramatic story to explore.”

Yes, Ed was well aware that there was something there with Chair. 

He told Jessica Szohr on her Gossip Girl rewatch podcast, XOXO with Jessica Szohr, that he really enjoyed working with Leighton Meester. He also noted that viewers seemed to love their characters’ relationship, which he found ‘cute and funny’ to see resonate with so many people.

You know, people always ask me about my connection with Leighton Meester, who played Blair. I recently told Jessica Szohr, who was amazing as Vanessa, that Leighton is just a phenomenal actress. I genuinely miss working with her. We had incredible chemistry, and honestly, we kept each other laughing on set. I even felt a bit protective of her at times. She really brought out the best in me, and I think I became a better actor because of her.

Ed and his co-star, Chace Crawford (who played his best friend Nate Archibald on screen), became very close because they lived together for the first two years of filming.

Ed shared on XOXO that he and Chace Crawford decided to be roommates when they started working on the pilot for the show. According to Ed, Chace simply asked if he wanted to live together, and Ed, who hadn’t lived on his own before, readily agreed.

The actor described how a friend showed him some very odd photos of potential places to live – things like just a corner of the ceiling and a small piece of the floor. He jokingly recalled responding with something like, ‘Okay, sounds good!’ and they ended up living together for two years.

Surprisingly, Jennifer Lawrence tried out for the role of Serena, but Blake Lively eventually landed the part.

In a 2017 interview with Vulture, co-creator Josh revealed that Jennifer Lawrence actually auditioned for the role of Serena, something they didn’t know at the time. According to secondhand information, she was disappointed when she didn’t get the part.

When Penn auditioned for the role of Dan, the character known as “Lonely Boy” from Brooklyn, he had long hair, which Josh and Stephanie described as resembling a snowboarder’s. He surprised everyone on set – including the network executives – by cutting off most of it on his very first day of filming.

Josh remembered everyone being shocked when he shaved his head, exclaiming things like, ‘What just happened?!’ But once they saw his new haircut, they all agreed it looked great.

Taylor Momsen is so strongly associated with Gossip Girl that it’s surprising to learn Lily Collins nearly played Jenny Humphrey, Dan’s younger sister. The Emily in Paris star recently told Glamour she really wanted the role and went through all the auditions.

David Rapaport, who cast actors for Gossip Girl, told Jessica about a planned Gossip Girl spin-off focusing on Serena van der Woodsen’s mother, Lily (Kelly Rutherford). The pilot episode featured Brittany Snow and Krysten Ritter.

I recall when Dakota Johnson and Rooney Mara auditioned, along with many other actresses who have become well-known since then. Interestingly, Nina Dobrev – who I believe you know – gave one of the best readings I’ve ever witnessed, and it was perfect for that particular role.

David said he called the network and told them, “She is a super star.”

He remembered explaining on the podcast that the problem was the actress didn’t resemble a young Kelly Rutherford, which was what the role called for.

She repeatedly told the network they shouldn’t lose sight of the Degrassi: The Next Generation actress, urging them to find a role for her. He remembered thinking she was exceptionally talented and that he’d regret not working with her later, saying, ‘I knew I’d look back in a few years and realize what a missed opportunity it was.’

In a 2022 interview on the XOXO podcast, Ed revealed that Chuck Bass wasn’t originally intended to be a main character. He was only meant to appear in a few episodes.

The actor expressed his gratitude that the show’s producer became more involved, and shared details about his audition. He explained he had a slightly easier process than other main cast members, only doing two auditions and a screen test, and didn’t have to audition for the network executives themselves.

It sounds like a classic ‘meet-cute’! The creators of Gossip Girl, Josh and Stephanie, discovered their Vanessa Abrams in a charming way: Adam Brody, whom they’d previously worked with on The O.C., brought her as a guest to a Fourth of July pool party.

On the show XOXO, Stephanie explained that she and Josh rushed to a computer – since this was before iPhones were common – to search for Jessica online and see if she was an actress.

Josh said casting Ed was quite complicated. The English actor originally tried out for the role of Nate, and someone else almost played Chuck instead.

Josh shared on the XOXO with Jessica Szohr podcast that an actor was originally cast as Chuck, but couldn’t travel to the U.S. to film because of visa issues – he was from the U.K. The network was pushing Josh to find someone else for the role.

Oh my god, it was insane! Josh told me they kept saying, as we got closer to filming the pilot, ‘Look, you guys need to have a plan B for Chuck, because honestly, we don’t think this is going to fly.’ And we were just SO sure! We kept telling them, ‘No way! There is no backup Chuck! It has to be Ed! He is Chuck!’ We just knew it in our hearts, and we weren’t going to let anyone change our minds!

Because Josh and Stephanie were determined to have Ed play the role of Chuck, the network held off until his visa was approved.

Stephanie, the executive producer, revealed that while Kristen Bell ultimately voiced Gossip Girl, Christina Ricci and Selma Blair were also seriously considered for the role.

Kristen landed the role after her show, Veronica Mars—where she also did the voiceover for the main character—ended after three seasons.

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2026-02-19 00:50