XOXO, Bitches: Kristen Bell Is Coming Back For More ‘Gossip Girl’

You could be forgiven for being a little bit worried about the forthcoming Gossip Girl reboot.

After all, the show feels firmly like the product of a time and a place. Gossip Girl exists in a bubble, totally removed from the realities of climate collapse, or class differences, or the real-world impact of Chuck Bass types. It’s a fantasy, and it’s not exactly clear how much we cynical bastards put stock in fantasies anymore.

And then there’s America’s track record when it comes to nostalgic reboots. Twin Peaks: The Return worked, but practically nothing else has, and we live in a world littered with the carcasses of failed attempts to revive classics.

But — and this is a big but — today we got some news that will have you ignoring all of those worries. Kristen Bell, the narrator of the original show, has be confirmed to be lending her voice to the reboot.

Yep, Bell, whose voice practically defined the OG viewing experience for most audience members, will be back.

That’s good news for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Kristen Bell is the best, and any chance that we get to have her in our lives should be celebrated.

Secondly — and perhaps more importantly — it shows that the creators of this new season understand the fine line they have to walk between the past and the future. The Gossip Girl reboot can’t just be another stab at the past, or a pale imitation of former glories. But it does need to be rooted deeply in nostalgia.

And the hiring of Bell makes it clear that there’s at least some attempt to meld those two worlds. Let’s hope that they continue to keep straddling that divide — though we won’t actually find out till the show hits our small screens next year, in 2020.