EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max’s upcoming Gossip Girl reboot has cast young actress Savannah Smith for a lead role. This marks the first booking for Smith, who is currently studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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Start of production on the 10-episode series — from Joshua Safran, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire, Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros TV and CBS Television Studios — has been delayed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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Like the original series, the new iteration of Gossip Girl, written by Safran, is based on the book by Cecily von Ziegesar. Eight years after the original website went dark, a new generation of New York private school teens is introduced to the social surveillance of Gossip Girl. The prestige series will address just how much social media — and the landscape of New York itself — has changed in the intervening years.

Details about Smith’s character were not released, but she is believed to be one of the cool girls at the school.

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Smith joins fellow leads Emily Alyn Lind, Tavi Gevinson, Whitney Peak, Eli Brown, Johnathan Fernandez and Jason Gotay as well as Thomas Doherty, Adam Chanler-Berat and Zion Moreno

Safran executive produces with Fake Empire’s Schwartz and Savage, and Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo of Alloy Entertainment. Fake Empire’s Lis Rowinski is co-executive producer.

Smith is repped by APA.