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These days, Penn Badgley plays the part of a charming and dangerous man on the Netflix series You. But his career started with another mysterious role on the TV series Gossip Girl. The show’s seven-year run ended with a bombshell revelation–one that centered on Badgley’s character. Did he know about the twist ahead of time? 

Penn Badgley played Dan Humphrey on ‘Gossip Girl’

In an interview with Variety, Badgley said that the show that made him famous happened at the exact right time. It was an era of intense celebrity gossip, with sites like Perez Hilton and TMZ providing endless coverage of scandals large and small. 

“Gossip Girl, if you think about it, wouldn’t have happened at any other time,” Badgley said. “That was the spirit of the show: It was Perez. It was TMZ.”

The show drew on that mood, creating a story that was taut with intrigue, scandal, and mystery. The question at the heart of it all was who was Gossip Girl? The anonymous writer told the secrets of everyone at Constance-Billard School for Girls and the St. Jude’s School for Boys, elite Manhattan private high schools.

Badgley played Dan, a thoughtful, reserved student who attended the school on a scholarship. It was a shock in the final episode when Dan was revealed to be the mysterious writer who had been exposing their secrets all along. 

It seems that the fans weren’t the only ones who were surprised. 

He found out at the last minute

Recently, Badgley took part in the popular Wired YouTube series where celebrities respond to the most-searched questions about them online. In the first batch of questions was one about the surprise at the end of Gossip Girl. Did Penn Badgley know Dan was Gossip Girl?

“No, certainly not in the beginning. Nobody knew,” Badgley explained “The writers … they’ve been clear about this. They had to decide who it was in the last season … for a finale. And I think he made the most sense.”

It seems that the writers waited as long as they possibly could to reveal who Gossip Girl was, even to the actors.

“I found out, I think, just right before we started shooting the episode. I really didn’t know what was coming down the pipe. But in the end, I’m happy to wear the crown. The moniker.”

Moving on from ‘Gossip Girl’

Penn Badgley sits on a couch during an appearance on the "Today" show
Penn Badgley appears on the “Today” show in 2023. I Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
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It’s been a little over ten years since Gossip Girl went off the air. HBO Max created a buzzy reboot of the popular series in 2021. But according to Entertainment Weekly, the third season of the new series was canceled in January, right before the Season 2 finale aired. 

Badgley, however, has moved on to other projects. He’s currently starring in the Netflix thriller series You, playing Joe, a charming but brutal serial killer. The series started with Joe working as a bookstore manager in Manhattan, in its recently released fourth season, he took on the role of a professor of literature in London. 

In his professional life, Badgley is also expanding his horizons. He tried his hand at directing with You, taking charge of the second to last episode of the fourth season, “She’s Not There.”

You hasn’t officially been renewed yet, but it’s expected to be. Season 5 will probably be the final season, after which Badgley will have to find out what he wants to do next. If history is any guide, he’ll be able to surprise us all–and maybe himself as well. 

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