VIDEO: HBO Max GOSSIP GIRL Trailer Features Donna Murphy, Laura Benanti and More

HBO Max has released the first look teaser for the much-anticipated series Gossip Girl! Making cameos in the first look at the series are Tony Award-winner Laura Benanti (in a role to be revealed) and Donna Murphy as the headmaster of the show's elite academy, Constance Billard.

The series premieres on Thursday, July 8 on HBO Max

Developed by showrunner Joshua Safran, a writer and executive producer on the original series, this extension of the pop culture classic takes us back to the Upper East Side finding a new generation of New York private school teens being introduced to social surveillance nine years after the original blogger's website went dark.

The series is based on the bestselling novels by Cecily von Ziegesar and the original show, developed by Josh Schwartz & Stephanie Savage, which ran from 2007-2012 on The CW.

GOSSIP GIRL explores just how much social media - and the landscape of New York itself - has changed in the intervening years. The series stars Jordan Alexander, Eli Brown, Thomas Doherty, Tavi Gevinson, Emily Alyn Lind, Evan Mock, Zion Moreno, Whitney Peak and Savannah Lee Smith.