Here’s Where the New “Gossip Girl” Characters Live Now Compared to the Original Series

“Gossip Girl” is back, and so are the lofty homes that made the original show so famous. After the reboot’s HBO Max premiere on July 8, viewers have a clearer idea about the who’s who of this latest group of elites, including their updated digs.

So much has evolved since the first cast took the city by storm, beginning with the neighborhoods (more broadly, the boroughs) they reside in. Where do the new “Gossip Girl” characters live compared to the OGs, and what does that say about how NYC has changed since the nine years the initial series ended? That’s a secret I’ll never tell (just kidding, let’s dive in).

Starting with party boy Max Wolfe, otherwise known as Chuck Bass 2.0., his townhouse is located in the West Village of Manhattan, filled with exposed-brick and antique furniture. In contrast, Chuck’s penthouse suite at The Empire Hotel on the Upper West Side was a brooding bachelor pad, with low lighting and a dark color palette. Max’s Greenwich Village home is warm, playful, and cozy — quite the opposite of Chuck’s upper Manhattan home. Who knows, maybe the location change implies he’s a more easygoing bad boy this time around?

As the self-proclaimed it-girl of the series, Julien Calloway’s lavish, high-rise penthouse continues the tradition passed down by Serena van der Woodsen. Instead of the Upper East Side, however, she’s moved to trendy TriBeCa, in a sprawling space (which Locations Manager Matthew Kania confirms is The Beekman Residences) that doesn’t lack any of the luxe finishes. Though more modern-minimalist than Serena’s residence, the apartment — with an address in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in NYC — is exactly what we’d expect from Constance Billard’s reigning queen bee.

Zoya, Julien’s younger half-sister, fulfills the typical “outsider” role. After convincing her father to migrate from Buffalo to NYC, she moves into an airy apartment on the Upper West Side. Zoya is different from her wealthy peers, just like Dan and Jenny Humphrey, and her address doesn’t seem to help (as the only one living on the UWS, is this the “outcast” area like Brooklyn was in the first series?). Still, whether she and Julien erupt in a Serena-and-Blair-style showdown will arguably depend more on their complicated family history than anything else.

Later in the episode, we also get a better glimpse at Obie Bergmann’s spacious loft located in Dumbo, Brooklyn. It’s a ways away from his archetype Nate Archibald’s stately Upper East Side townhouse, but that just speaks to the increased appeal of Dumbo and Brooklyn at large since the original series premiered in 2007. Without making him an outsider, Obie’s contemporary Brooklyn loft contrasts the original show, where almost everyone lived on the UES.

Now that it’s no longer passé to cross the bridge, if the series premiere is any indication of what’s to come, the new “Gossip Girl” characters will likely spend a lot of time outside of the Upper East Side.