Chace Crawford 'moving forward' after breaking free from his Gossip Girl typecast

Chace Crawford has finally broken free from his Gossip Girl typecast and is “moving forward” playing more complex characters.

The 33-year-old heartthrob garnered worldwide fame playing Upper East Side wealthy teen Nate Archibald in the hit drama series, which was this week revealed to be getting the reboot treatment with a 10-episode series on HBO Max.

The new show will be set eight years after the original and feature a new generation of privileged teens in New York.

It is not yet known whether stars of the original series – Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Leighton Meester and Crawford – will feature in any way.

But the Texas-born actor recently told the Standard Gossip Girl fame has been a “double-edged sword” he has had to navigate.

Since its finale he has been best known for taking on small roles in romcoms such as What to Expect When You're Expecting – until this year, when he has returned to screens playing a trifecta of evil villains.

The actor just finished filming upcoming psychological thriller Inheritance opposite Tolkien star Lily Collins, played killer Tex Watson in director Mary Harron’s new Tribeca-screened Charles Manson thriller, Charlie Says, and is about to appear in Amazon Prime Video’s latest big-budget offering, The Boys, as twisted misogynist superhero The Deep, who has a glossy public image but assaults women in private.

Crawford told the Standard: “It’s a double-edged sword, right? It [Gossip Girl] was like the best thing that ever happened and opened doors and gave us all immense opportunity, but then you’re really popular for doing this one character, so you’ve got to find ways to sort of break out of that. But I definitely had a little bit more power, and I’m just trying to shed that perception and do roles like Charlie Says and roles like this [The Deep], and a few others like this, and just moving forward.”

His Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley last year returned to screens playing a serial killer in Netflix hit You, and has also admitted he struggled to shake off his character Dan Humphrey.

He previously told the Standard he plans to move into producing to be part of shows not involving the “privileged white male” roles he has played.

The Boys launches on Prime Video on July 26