Gossip Girl fans everywhere love Nate Archibald. He’s the nice guy who generally tries to do right by people which really stands out among his Upper East Side peers. Nate is usually the one to do the responsible thing when everyone else, namely Chuck and Blair, want to do the devious thing.
Maybe it’s exactly this diamond in the rough quality that makes fans love him so much. No matter what it is, Nate has captured the heart of many and inquiring minds want to know as much about him as possible. So, keep reading to find out the 10 things that even diehard fans didn’t know about Nate.
He Could Have Been Played By Ed Westwick
Nate Archibald, played by Chace Crawford, quickly became a fan-favorite character when Gossip Girl aired in 2007. Surprisingly enough though, it’s true that Ed Westwick (Chuck) auditioned for the role of Nate. It’s hard to believe that the Nate we know and love could have actually been played by anyone else.
Ed initially auditioned for the part of good-boy Nate but wasn’t given it because he looked too “menacing”, the role ultimately went to Chace and the rest is history. It’s for the best, considering Westwick played Chuck perfectly and having any other Chuck or Nate would have been a disservice to fans.
He Was The Oldest Of The Gang
The main cast of Gossip Girl were all supposed to be around the age of 17 when the show first aired. However, Chace Crawford was actually 21 years old during the first season, which puts him at playing four years younger than he actually is. While this isn’t a huge age gap, he is also the oldest out of his friends.
This probably explains why Nate was always the most mature, level headed and loyal friend out of the whole group. Of course, he had his moments, but not as many moments as his peers.
His Friends Didn’t Deserve Him
Speaking of how loyal and mature Nate was, his friends really didn’t deserve him, especially Serena. While it’s true that Nate made his own fair share of mistakes when it came to both Blair and Serena, Serena treated Nate exceptionally poorly. She plays with his emotions far too many times throughout the series and often disregards his feelings.
Specifically, the entire “Nate or Dan” thing, where Serena couldn’t choose who she wanted to be with, was pretty disrespectful. Even so, after everything was said and done with their relationship, Nate remained a loyal friend to Serena.
He Should Have Ended Up With Vanessa
It needs to be said, Vanessa was good for Nate. She seemed to balance him out in a way that none of the traditional Upper East Siders could. Maybe it’s because of how down to earth Vanessa was due to her humble upbringing.
This was definitely something Nate needed considering everything he was going through such as his father’s legal battles. When he was with Vanessa he was free to be himself and didn’t feel judged. That’s definitely a quality to hang on to in a relationship.
He Has A Fancy Middle Name
If you’re a true Gossip Girl fan then you probably know everything there is to know about Nate, such as every girl he has dated or how many family members he has. Something you may not know, however, is what his middle name is.
Maybe it’s a given that Nate has a fancy-sounding middle name, he is an Archibald after all. According to Fandom, his parents gave him the middle name Fitzwilliam, which does seem extremely fitting. Nate Fitzwilliam Archibald. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
He’s An Aries
It’s no surprise, right? Aries are known for being passionate and motivated which sounds just like Nate Archibald. Nate goes for what he wants and doesn’t hold back. Fans have seen that multiple times in his relationships with both Serena and Blair.
He’s also been known to go for what he wants career-wise. Nate really dominated at running The Spectator and later fans find out that he may even be running for mayor. If that doesn’t say Aries then we’re not sure what does.
His Storyline Is Different In The Books
You may be the biggest Nate Archibald fan without ever picking up a single Gossip Girl book. That’s understandable, to each their own, but you may want to know that Nate’s character got into some unique trouble in the books.
Fandom shares that his storyline in the TV series isn’t exactly the same as it is in the popular novels. In the book series, Nate routinely smokes a lot of marijuana, gets caught, and gets sent to rehab where he meets and dates - wait for it - Georgina Sparks.
He Was Considered To Be Gossip Girl
Honestly, it probably would have been better if Nate was Gossip Girl. According to PopCrush, Nate was briefly considered to be the gossip blogger, not Dan. While Nate may not have been the perfect choice for this role, is still would have made more sense than Lonely Boy being behind it all.
The only thing that does make sense is that Dan was most likely chosen to be Gossip Girl for purely shock value and Nate was runner up for the same reason.
He Wasn’t Sure About Blair
Okay, to be fair, it was actually Chace Crawford that wasn’t sure about Leighton Meester. Elle shares that Chace wasn’t originally sold on Leighton playing the part of Blair Waldorf. He felt she wouldn’t be feisty enough for the role when he first met her, but when Meester got into character, Crawford was immediately proven wrong and decided he was a fan.
Of course, fans are grateful that Chace came around because the duo ended up having pretty great chemistry, even if their romance didn’t last long.
He’s Hard To Move On From
Chace Crawford shared with Teen Vogue that moving on from his character, Nate Archibald, has been a hard thing to do. Netflix is partly responsible for this considering they make streaming the entire series extremely easy. New generations are binging Gossip Girl and getting introduced to Nate for this first time, which means the Gossip Girl fandom is just getting bigger and bigger every day.
Thankfully, Chace isn’t totally typecasted because of this and has secured some other great roles since Gossip Girl, but it’s definitely hard for fans to not think of him as their beloved Nate Archibald.
