TV Stars Who Didn't Like How Their Show Ended: Penn Badgley and Chace Crawford

[JamesG]

"Gossip Girl", the CW's hit show about New York City’s young elite, ended on a shocking note: Penn Badgley’s character, Dan Humphrey, is revealed to have been the eponymous, anonymous blogger terrorizing his classmates.

Many fans felt that Dan got off too easy, and that the reveal largely did not align with the character they’d come to know across six seasons.




It turns out Badgley agrees, as he revealed in a 2021 interview alongside costar Chace Crawford, who played Nate Archibald.

Crawford reflected, "At the end of Gossip Girl the show, whatever your reaction is on whether it was smart to do that or not, that he’s Gossip Girl — it didn’t really line up with the character of Dan. Right?" Badgley agreed with that assessment.




In February 2026, on the final episode of his podcast Podcrushed, Badgley admitted to former costar Leighton Meester that he laughed while filming the moment where he discloses his identity.

“It was the most, like, absurd thing that you could possibly say.”

https://ew.com/actors-unhappy-with-t...-hall-11993877