Gosip Girl Spinoff Finds Lily’s Sister

In the first major casting on the CW’s Gossip Girl spinoff, Krysten Ritter has been tapped to play Carol Rhodes, Lily’s older sister. The spinoff, a prequel to Gossip Girl, chronicles the wild teen years of Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford) in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

Written by Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the new project centers on young Lily Rhodes (her maiden name), who, after a falling-out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, Carol (Ritter), the black sheep of the Rhodes family. Overnight, Lily has to transition from a life of luxury and education at a wealthy Montecito boarding school to living deep in the San Fernando Valley she once made fun of and going to public school.

The backdoor pilot for the spinoff will air as a Gossip Girl episode May 11.