Everything to Know About You’s Potential Season 5 on Netflix: From Story Lines to the Show’s Future

Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Everything to Know About You's Potential Season 5 on Netflix: From Story Lines to the Show's Future

Taking a twisted turn. Netflix's You offered a series shakeup when Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) decided to move back to New York after unleashing a murder spree in London — but the story might be just getting started. During season 4, Joe initially seemed to have his darker tendencies under control as he started over yet again. The second half of the season, however, introduced a plot twist with Joe actually being responsible for the deaths he was trying to investigate. "It has to go to this place for five episodes where it's like, 'Is he going to become a hero as we've all wanted him to?' It doesn't make any sense when Joe becomes a hero," Badgley explained to British GQ in March 2023 about his character's initial arc. "This is the only place the show could have ever gone and remain relevant, remain responsible, remain intelligent, remain sensitive, but true." The Gossip Girl alum noted that You "has been building" toward the audience seeing Joe "in a different" light. Meanwhile, showrunner Sera Gamble hinted that the narrative shift would continue to play a big role in Joe's evolution if the show is renewed for a fifth season. "We have spent four seasons constructing these characters who are violently wealthy, but not all of them are that smart or that ruthless," she told E! News that same month. "If Joe is all of the things that he is and now has unlimited resources and access, he's become the thing that he envied and judged from afar. It gives us a lot of new opportunities." At the time, Badgley clarified that he still expects to see a specific ending for the main character. "Joe is a perfect device because you can delve into something, but you always have the safety cord or the safety net of, 'Yeah, but he's a hypocrite.' We are all exploring something earnestly, I think. But of course nobody has a perfect perspective, so if there's any place where it's really got some blind spots, well, that's Joe, frankly. That's OK. So, in a way, I really like that," the actor detailed to Salon in February 2023. "So, just because he's thinking it and saying it, doesn't mean that we think it's right. But he is getting at something, and of course people can identify with that. So to me, Joe is like, he's a many-sided die. He's got too many sides, and he needs to die." Scroll down for everything we know about You's potential fifth season:

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Has 'You' Been Renewed for Season 5?

You, which aired season 4 in two parts, was renewed for a fifth and final season by Netflix.

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Who Is Returning to 'You'?

The show would continue to follow Badgley's character after his return to New York. Charlotte Ritchie, Tati Gabrielle and Amy-Leigh Hickman all could reprise their roles in season 5.

Jenna Ortega, who previously starred in season 2, has also expressed her interest in returning after finding success on Netflix's Wednesday.

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Where Did the Story Leave Off?

After Joe realized he was responsible for the murders in London, he accepted his darker side and framed Nadia in the process. The season 4 finale focused on Joe's move back to New York with Kate (Ritchie) — and the subsequent aftermath of his decisions.  

Meanwhile, Marienne (Gabrielle) faked her own death and reunited with her daughter after Joe initially continued to fixate on her.

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What Would the 'You' Cast Like to See in Season 5?

In March 2023, Gabrielle teased what return she hopes is in store for Marienne.

"I think [I] want revenge for Marienne, but I don't think that Marienne is a vengeful person," she exclusively told Us Weekly. "She would want to seek justice because I don't think that it sits right in her spirit that he's gotten it away with it again. That he's out there and to know that his mind has broken completely at this point. [She would be] afraid of any other woman or any other person that could be out there that could be his next victim." 

At the time, the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina alum weighed in on Joe’s potential conclusion, saying, "I would love to see him actually be prosecuted and be locked away in a cage for the rest of his life. Because I also think that everybody's like, 'He needs to die.' And death is too easy of a punishment. Like, if anything, that's almost a gift. Especially for Joe."

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Would Season 5 Be the End of 'You'?

"I know what [showrunner] Greg [Berlanti] pitched me a few years back as what he thought was the right way to end," Badgley told British GQ in March 2023 about You’s future. "If there's another one, it's going to be, I think, a grand finale."