Penn Badgley Reveals Who He Thinks Should Have Been Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl would have never been Dan Humphrey if it were up to Penn Badgley.

As fans recall, Dan was revealed to be the person behind the titular character, who, until the show’s final episode, was voiced by Kristen Bell and kept a secret.

Badgley appeared on the Wednesday, April 23, episode of Alex Cooper‘s podcast Call Her Daddy, where he chimed in on which character he believes should have been the one stirring the pot for the six-season series.

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“It wouldn’t have made sense for anybody. We all wanted it to be Dorota,” said Badgley, referring to Blair Waldorf’s (Leighton Meester) maid, portrayed by Zuzanna Szadkowski. Cooper agreed with the actor, saying, “Without a doubt. Dorota would have slapped.”

However, Badgley noted, “They needed it to be a series regular.” When Cooper brought up the idea of it being his on-screen father, Rufus Humphrey (Matthew Settle), Badgley gave the same explanation.

“Series regular,” he said. “They needed to be one of the core six. Otherwise, nobody cares.”

While Badgley didn’t specify who the “core six” were, fans can assume they include him, Meester, Blake Lively (Serena van der Woodsen), Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass), Chace Crawford (Nate Archibald) and Taylor Momsen (Jenny Humphrey).

Speaking earlier in the episode about his character, Badgley said, “What he did was sociopathic just in terms of being Gossip Girl.”

He also explained how he found out he would be revealed as the identity behind Gossip Girl — something that he said happened “real late.”

“I was in the hair and makeup trailer room. Don’t remember what I was wearing. JFK was not assassinated on that day. It was just me being Gossip Girl,” said Badgley. “But I remember just being like, kinda like, ‘Huh, ok.’ I’m trying to math it, it’s tough. Alright. And we’ve got a shoot tomorrow. Cool.”

Although Badgley was surprised to learn that he was Gossip Girl, he previously told PEOPLE that he understood some of the reason behind it.

“It doesn’t make sense at all. It wouldn’t have made sense for anybody. Gossip Girl doesn’t make sense!” he said, laughing. “But no, it made enough sense. He was a writer.”

Executive producer and showrunner Joshua Safran also told Vanity Fair in 2021 that it wasn’t in the original plan to reveal Gossip Girl’s identity.

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“We didn’t expect to even reveal who Gossip Girl was. It wasn’t even in our plans for many years,” said Safran. “So of course it doesn’t line up because it wasn’t like we started on day one and said, ‘Dan is Gossip Girl.’ “