Warning: if you have not watched the original Gossip Girl and don't want to be spoiled, turn away now. Yes, apparently, despite the fact that the show ended in 2012—a whomping 13 years ago—it's still considered spoilable. At least, that's what angry commenters are saying after Penn Badgley spoiled Gossip Girl's identity in a new Netflix promo combining three things all millennials love: Gossip Girl, You, and Nobody Wants This.
Penn revived Gossip Girl with a twist in a new promo, lending his serial killer Joe Goldberg voice-over from You to the viral first kiss scene from Nobody Wants This. Sound random? It's really not, as Penn explains in the clip. “In the finale of Gossip Girl, it was revealed that the very lovely Kristen Bell was lending her voice to my character—to Dan Humphrey—who is the real Gossip Girl,” he said, adding that he's just returning the favor.
Though he followed up his Dan Humphrey is Gossip Girl bombshell with a belated spoiler alert, the damage was already done. Fans who are just now discovering Gossip Girl on Netflix were distraught upon learning Gossip Girl's true identity. And they let their feelings known in the Instagram comments. “This is great, but also thanks for the spoiler,” one fan wrote. “What's the hack for unseeing this?” another commented. “I am only on season 3 how dare you ruin it for me,” wrote another.
If you were spoiled, I hope you take comfort in knowing that the Gossip Girl ending is really the least interesting thing about the show. It also, quite frankly, makes zero sense upon rewatch.
Spoiler or no, there's no denying that the clip is a pretty brilliant feat of marketing, with Penn delivering lines like, “I know the friend zone is usually a cold, dark place suitable for frozen delicacies to bury your feelings in by the shovelful, but this is torture;” and “Of all the ways to make a woman's knees weak, I would not have expected handling ice cream to be one of them.”
Frankly, I could watch an entire season of Nobody Likes This with Joe Goldberg's voice over and be both delighted and a little scared the entire time. Or maybe they'll keep trading voice overs, and Kristen will be doing You à la Gossip Girl... A girl can dream!











