Leighton Meester joins “The Buccaneers” in “Gossip Girl”-esque promo video
1870s London has gotta have some lunch-worthy staircases, right?
The queen bee of Constance Billard is crashing debutante season.
A new promo for season 2 of Apple TV+'s period drama The Buccaneers reveals a new addition to the cast: Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester.
The promo celebrates Meester's arrival with a phone-based gossip sesh, seemingly nodding to the actress' most iconic TV role. The video begins with Alisha Boe (Conchita Closson) answering her smartphone and making a shocked expression. She excitedly texts Josie Totah (Mabel Elmsworth), who makes a similarly surprised face and rushes to whisper the news in the ear of Imogen Waterhouse (Jinny St. George).
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Totah then runs into a bedroom to spread the word to Aubri Ibrag (Lizzy Elmsworth) on a bedroom set, and Totah, Ibrag, and Waterhouse head downstairs to inform Kristine Froseth (Nan St. George).
After a loud knocking, the quartet opens the door to reveal their visitor: Meester wearing an elegant fuchsia gown and a wry grin.
Darlings, welcome Leighton Meester to #TheBuccaneers Season 2. pic.twitter.com/R24IZS0Vn6
— Apple TV (@AppleTV) October 1, 2024
Related: The Buccaneers creator on inevitable Bridgerton comparisons: 'The whole point is the culture clash'
Based on Edith Wharton's posthumous 1937 novel of the same name, The Buccaneers follows a group of young American women navigating debutante culture in 1870s London. Creator Katherine Jakeways discussed the series with Entertainment Weekly ahead of its first season last fall. "The whole point of the story is the culture clash between the buttoned up, stiff, English, traditional, period-drama families and this new whirlwind of these vivacious, wild, free girls who've arrived," she said. "The tone of it was informed as much by the fact that Edith Wharton has put that in her book and that's fundamental to the story as it was trying to make it feel contemporary to a contemporary audience."
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Despite being set 150 years in the past, Jakeways noted the relatable universality at the heart of the show's character dynamics — and it's not that far removed from Gossip Girl. "They were young women who had come over on a ship on an adventure of a lifetime with their best friends," she said. "They're thinking they were going to have these amazing adventures and these experiences of meeting these new people — and doing it with their mates and collapsing on the bed at the end of the night after a party and going, 'Oh my God, can you believe that she said that to him?' and behaving in the way that every young woman in history has ever behaved."
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Meester joins the show in an undisclosed role. But gossip travels fast, so we'll likely hear about her character soon.
Season 1 of The Buccaneers is streaming on Apple TV+.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.