Gossip Girl will be reaching its hundred-episode landmark next week with the wedding of Blair and Prince Louis. One hundred episodes over five seasons says something about the CW series’ staying power. But a big question persists: how much longer can the show last? Fans might hope to see Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley and company on screen for years to come. But executive producer Josh Safran and star Ed Westwick are both vying for a timely conclusion: specifically, at the end of a possible sixth season, which would premiere in the fall of 2012.
The main cast’s contracts will be up after Season 6, which would free up disinterested parties (such as Westwick) from continuing on if the show exists beyond. However, talk has sprouted about working toward’s the show’s ending in time for the sixth season finale.
While Safran seems to think a six season run would be ideal, he is not opposed to a continuation of the show beyond that: “I’m hoping it goes another year and then I think if it were to end then, it’d be OK. If it were to continue, I’d be super happy as well.” In terms of the writers’ plans for a Gossip Girl endgame, Safran remarked, “[Ideas] just keep shifting. Of course there are some loose ends that we’d like to tie up for sure…I’m not saying that Josh [Schwartz] and Stephanie [Savage] don’t [have an endgame in mind,] but I don’t want to think about an endgame because when you think about where you want them to go then it’s done in my head and it’s still living for me. That’s not to say that it won’t end exactly the way that half the audience wants it to.”
However, Westwick, who plays the series’ bad boy, Chuck Bass, is much more closed off to the idea of anything beyond six seasons of Gossip Girl. After having infamously expressed his diminishing interest in playing the character in 2011, Westwick continued to voice his hope that Gossip Girl reaches its end in the near future. “I feel like I’ve done everything! But I don’t write the show, so if they come up with something where I’m reading it and go, ‘Oh wait! We can do this. He can fly!’ then who knows.” Sure, it may seem like he’s being optimistic, but if flying is what it takes to keep Westwick invested in his character, I’d say we won’t be seeing much more of Chuck.
So, with Gossip Girl in talks for a Season 6 conclusion, what “loose ends,” as Safran puts it, does the show still need to wrap up?
Gossip Girl‘s 100th episode, “G.G.”, airs Monday, Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the CW.
