Season 5 may have just wrapped but Gossip Girl writers have been plotting the just-confirmed Season 6 for some time. GG Executive Producer Stephanie Savage waited until that very final breathtaking moment in Monday night’s “The Return of the Ring” to unleash somemajor scoop about the upcoming final season, everything from Serena’s relapse, returning guest stars, and Chuck and Blair’s (finally solid?) future.

Read on for more!

What’s it like to be celebrating the end of the 5th season?

It feels great. It’s really exciting. I think it’s an amazing episode. As everyone’s probably already heard, we’ve got our order for season 6, which will be our final run so we’re really launching what are going to be those final stories in that episode.

You love having some fun really fun guest stars on the show. Elizabeth Hurley was such a hit this season. What is your dream guest star for season 6?

We have some guest stars that we are cooking up for next season that I’m not going to say who they are but we are also really going to focus on our core characters for next year. When we really have only so many episodes left, we really want to make sure that we’re telling stories with Serena, Blair, Chuck, Dan, Nate, Rufus and Lily and that our core family gets all their screen time.

Since we’re here at the finale of season 5, how far in advance in season 6 do you have to be thinking and how did that play into you developing this finale episode?

We definitely had some ideas in mind and the writers came back a week and a half ago so we’re already working on season 6 and figuring out what those episodes are going to be, what the first episode back is gonna be. It’s fun.

Going into the last season, are there certain things you want to accomplish or touch base on from previous seasons?

Yeah I think definitely that’s something that we talk about a lot and getting ready for season 6, everybody re-watched the pilot and we talked about what our favorite episodes were and our favorite dynamics. It’s bittersweet. It’s very exciting. As a writer, I think your impulse is to move your story forwards and to bring things to completion. As a television producer, your job is to make the show last as long as humanly possible. Those final 10 will be really sad and weird when it’s over. We want to make sure that the last 10 episodes, we’re leaving it all on the floor. We really want them to count and to be really special.

Are there 10 or 11 episodes in the final season?

That might change but right now they’re saying 10 and a retrospective. The CW will clarify that on Thursday.

What point in the season did you know that Chuck and Blair might be reunited in the finale?

I don’t know that it was ever a question at any point in the season particularly. I think it was just a question of arcing out that relationship so that it ended in a place where it was Blair coming to declare that she was in it to win it with Chuck and leaving that as the question of season 6.

Can you tell us anything about season 6? Who is coming back? What are some of the storylines?

We’re definitely focusing on our core characters but kind of the gang that you see in that final act are going to be the main players when we come back.

Does that include Georgina?

It does include Georgina.

Do you already know how it’s going to end for everyone?

We know a lot of things.

It seems like you’re going back to Season 1 almost with Serena – who she was before that. Is that something you are interested in exploring? Maybe showing Serena before we see the reformed side of her?

Yeah. Obviously it’s a signature of the show to do echoes of previous episodes. I think that’s the third time we’ve done the train shot. We did it with Serena. We did it with Jenny. Chuck had a train shot in the Paris episode but kind of having Serena leave town as we saw her come back into town in the pilot was definitely delivered in that idea where she’s now feeling like she’s lost Blair, she’s lost Dan. She’s sort of all by herself again. That’s going to put her in a pretty precarious emotional situation when we start season 6.

What can you say about the love Rufus – Lily – Bart  triangle?

I think that’s something that is really exciting for season 6 — to see how that is going to shape up and what’s the endgame for those three characters. Rufus and Lily’s marriage has been relatively stable for a couple years and it’s just recently in the last sort of story arc that we did - with Lily and her mother dying and with the will and Ivy and the war with her sister - that certain aspects of her personality that we are all very aware of and that have been with us since the beginning are starting to solidify in a way that’s made Rufus uncomfortable and made him question what that relationship is really about. Then with him making this final gesture towards her that we saw in the finale of wanting to save the marriage and Lily rejecting that, I think is going to put them all in a really interesting spot for next year.

It seems like Blair at the end of this episode is completely committed to getting Chuck back. So are Dan and Blair’s romantic side done or are you guys going to still toy with it in season 6?

I never like to say yay or nay to that type of question but we crafted the last act of that episode to set us in a certain direction next year.

Is she going to find out that Dan cheated on her or does that not matter anymore now that she is talking to Chuck?

Well if somebody had a sex tape on their phone on Gossip Girl and they said that they deleted it but you never really saw that it was deleted…

You said that Georgina is going to play a big part next season. Does that mean that Michelle [Trachtenberg] is going to be in more episodes? All 10?

I can’t confirm that but we’re talking about it.

Ivy is a regular now. Is Lola a regular now too?

I think that Ella Rae [Peck] got a pilot for NBC so we’re very excited for her but sad for ourselves. It seems like she won’t be available to do the show next year.

Obviously Nate is on to who Gossip Girl might be. Is that going to play a huge part in the final season?

It’s definitely going to be something that Nate is going to seize on and be tracking down. We thought he had pretty good detective skills this year so we’re gonna keep using them.

Will Nate finally find a real love?

That’s going to be one of the series questions. I think when we met Nate, way back when in the pilot, he was someone who was really questioning what this world held for him, dating and pining for Serena – where was it all going to end? I think that’s a big part of his series arc that we’ll be exploring next year.

Do you guys know at this point whether or not you will unmask Gossip Girl by the end of the series?

The unmasking of Gossip Girl is something that has larger implications to the franchise beyond just our series. That reveal requires conversations at the highest level of the octagon.

Will Josh Safran have any involvement in season 6 or is he fully involved in Smash land now?

He’s off getting smashed.

Are you guys going to do anything like a new format, a musical episode, or anything different for next season?

It’s funny because if we only have so many episodes left, we’ve been making a list of what are those things that we might want to do on our series that we haven’t done yet and we’re definitely exploring every crazy option of ways to tell our show.

If Gossip Girl is revealed next season. Is it going to be who was in the video or is that another Nate clue?

Wait and see. Nate has a lot of clues to figure out before he comes to any conclusions.

With Dan’s new book, is he completely out to get the Upper East Side at this point?

How did it seem at the end of the finale? When you call in Georgina Sparks, it’s serious business!

This time next year, we’ll be saying goodbye to our favorite (and not-so-favorite) characters of Gossip Girl as they wrap up this seasons-long chapter of their lives. But for their real-life counterparts, that chapter is already nearly closed as the actors move full steam ahead into a future beyond the designer-clad world of the Upper East Side.

One of the show’s biggest stars, Leighton Meester, has already made a big geographical switch — from New York to Los Angeles — to commit more time to her other passion: music. “It kind of already feels like it’s coming to an end now because I’m basically living in another place and moving on to something else,” says the woman behind the fiery Blair Waldorf in an exclusive interview with Wetpaint Entertainment. That “something else” has led to her first tour (five shows on the west coast, which kicks off May 29) with band and longtime pals Check in the Dark, whom she calls her “musical soul mates.” 

We may be nearing the end of our love affair with GG, but if it’s any consolation, Leighton is prepared to give us the sweetest breakup song ever. Read on for more of our chat with Leighton:

On the beginning of the end forGossip Girl:
“We don’t go back to New York until July, and we only have four months of shooting [Season 6] so [...] it’s kind of a good thing and a bad thing. I’m excited to for it to end because I’m ready for a new chapter […],  and at the same time, the thing I’ll miss the most is the people that I work with. Everyone’s like family — the crew [and] everyone that we work with every day in New York.”

On moving from New York to Los Angeles:
“It’s just such a great, warm, creative environment. And to be around everybody and my friends, to be able to be outside. It feels right [...]. Home is the west coast for me […]. It feels right and it feels great that our first tour is going to such great cities on the west coast.”

On comparing music versus acting:
“[Playing Blair] is intense, but music is intense in a different way [and] in a very personal way. When I play a character, it’s pretty much the exact opposite. I mean, I do find parts of the character in myself — and it’s absolutely rewarding to be able to draw from experiences of my own, but the music is my experience. It’s what I’m feeling in that moment.

"I feel like the songs I’ve written these past couple years, that we’re going to be performing [on the tour], they really are an expression of how I felt [at that moment] [...]. It’s completely different [than acting], it’s a different art form — and I’m really, really glad that I have it  because it’s part of what keeps me sane — if I can call myself that.”

On how Gossip Girl influenced fans’ music tastes:
“[We had] very interesting bands that I don’t think I’d heard of before they came on the show. I think [the show’s] great at doing that, at finding new kind of cool music and introducing it to the mainstream — which is awesome.”

On connecting with a new fanbase:
“I feel like some hardcore fans who have already made it to shows […], they will totally understand the vibe. And I’m excited to introduce our new sound to people who have no idea what they’re in for — and that’s what I’ve been excited about.” (Check out Leighton and Check in the Dark in action here and here.)

On singing in Country Strong — and its impact on her as an artist:
“I was definitely influenced by being part of [the movie], and being part of a completely different world and genre of music. And I mean, before that […] I was doing pop music. And as much as I can discuss that with pride […], personally, the music I’m doing now is way more of a reflection of who I am, who I’ve become, and where I’m headed.”

Find out if Leighton is coming to a city near you atCheckInTheDarkMusic.com.