Gossip Girl: who's who in HBO reboot cast

In the world of Gossip Girl, you're no one until you're talked about. That's why we had to get the deets on the new, glamorous youth of Constance Billard and St. Jude's — before even the titular tattler herself can spill all when the HBO Max reboot of the CW series premieres Thursday, July 8.

Here's what series creator and showrunner Joshua Safran had to say about the fresh crop of Manhattan's elite.

01 of 09

Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander)

"Julien is the center of attention whether she wants to be or not — and she usually wants to be," says Safran. "She's one of the ways we're looking at how culture has shifted, where people really feel like they're the center of the universe. They walk through the world knowing they're important. The thing is, sometimes that can be a blessing and sometimes it can be a burden."

02 of 09

Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak)

"Zoya sees the world more clearly than the rest of the characters and comes from a different place," says the showrunner. "Therefore, through her eyes, they have to reevaluate themselves."

03 of 09

Otto "Obie" Bergmann IV (Eli Brown)

"Obie is our richest character, but he does not love coming from money," says Safran. "He's guilty rich. He has a problem with his parents' wealth, and it's fascinating to watch him grapple with how to live with privilege, especially as a white man."

04 of 09

Audrey Hope (Emily Alyn Lind)

"Audrey is the closest in spirit to Blair [Leighton Meester], except she's not Blair," says the executive producer. "She actually lives on the Upper East side, and almost none of our characters live on the Upper East side. She has a beautiful jewel box of an apartment and loves Chanel and old glamour and dinner parties — so she has that Blair aspect. However, she doesn't have that feeling Blair had that she was not winning but deserves to win. Audrey has this grace and competence, so winning is not even a part of her vocabulary. She knows who she is. When she gets dressed for the morning, it's for herself — not for the world."

05 of 09

Max Wolfe (Thomas Doherty)

"Max shares spiritual DNA with Chuck [Ed Westwick] in that he loves everything, but he shares nothing else with him," says Safran. "Max is open, carefree, kind, and good. He can be a sh--ster, but he's loving. He's up for anything, but that anything could be like, 'Let's watch a movie at home or let's go out all night.'"

06 of 09

Akeno "Aki" Menzies (Evan Mock)

"Aki is a really trusting, open, funny person," says Safran. "He's a combination of a new and an old soul. You know those people who seem to have the wisdom of an old soul but also see the world like it's new every day and so they love it so much? That's who he is."

07 of 09

Luna La (Zión Moreno)

"Whatever you're going to wear, wherever you're going to eat, whoever you're going to date, if Luna says not to, or Luna says to, you do that," says Safran. "If Luna says, 'That's not for you,' you're like, 'You're right. That's not for me.'"

08 of 09

Monet de Haan (Savannah Smith)

"You don't want Monet to read you because you will just disappear into thin air," says Safran. "What she says goes, and she knows what goes."

09 of 09

Kate Keller (Tavi Gevinson)

"What's most interesting about Kate is she represents the tie to the older Gossip Girl," Safran says. "Being a millionaire in a private school in 2007 was much different. Now you have [rich] kids from other countries whose parents can't even live in this country. Kate is not a part of that world and doesn't understand it."

Gossip Girl premieres July 8 on HBO Max.

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