You spoilers follow – including the very end of season four.
Netflix delivered You season four in two parts. The first framed Joe Goldberg in more of a redemptive light, and led viewers down the path of a fairly traditional whodunnit, while the second delivered an epic twist that forever changed our serial killer protagonist.
But what does this mean for the future of the show? Will You return for a season five, or has the story wrapped up for good?
Here’s everything we know so far.
You season 5 potential release date – when will we get more episodes?
At this stage, we don’t have many concrete answers.
Netflix hasn’t made any official announcements either way. Season four wasn’t revealed to be the show’s finale, which is something Netflix has been doing for other original releases when new seasons are planned to be last outings. But we also haven’t had a renewal confirmation yet.
If Netflix does green-light You season five, based on the pattern of previous years, we’d expect it to drop sometime around late 2024, going into 2025.
You season 5 renewal – is Netflix likely to bring the show back?
It feels as though Netflix cancellations are becoming more and more frequent, but You is one of its most popular original shows, so we’d be really surprised if it was to end without ample warning.
Showrunner Sera Gamble has hinted that there’s still life in the show yet, telling Hollywood Reporter: “We have an idea for season five that we’re excited about.”
However, Gamble also made the point that they wouldn’t carry on if the story felt finished.
“It was never anyone’s intention to run this one into the ground,” she told the publication. “When we’re done, we’ll be done. And we’ll pack it up. Even in the early conversations with Penn, the idea was not to crank out episodes forever; it’s to feel like we have told the complete story.
“And though I feel like tonally, we’re very different and we are not trying to sell Joe as any kind of a hero with a straight face. This is a show that is in the tradition of these single-lead shows with a guy who does increasingly bad things. The beautiful thing about it is that when his arc is complete, so is the show.”
Leading star Penn Badgley recently echoed this sentiment, saying of You’s future (via the Happy Sad Confused podcast):
“I think if there’s another season, I think it’s only going to be one. I think — this is my understanding, but I don’t know, I really don’t know.
“But I know that everybody concerned, from the top on down, nobody wants this show to become tired. That’s when Joe is the most disgusting. That’s when the show stops having the intelligence that it has.”
You season 5 plot – where do we go from here?
The season four story was fairly self-contained, and it reached a satisfying conclusion. We know where each of our characters ended up (many of them in the ground or behind bars), and there are no real plot threads left to pick at (unless you count the ongoing question of whether Jenna Ortega’s Ellie is ever going to show up again).
As for Joe Goldberg, the insinuation is that he has now faced up to and fully embraced the darkest parts of himself. What’s more, he can now use the money and power that his girlfriend Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) wields to further his own privilege and continue to protect himself from consequence.
The Joe Goldberg we are looking at by the end of season four feels completely untouchable, with an entire PR team at his disposal to help mop up any messes he might make.
He has also found a partner that fully sees and is willing to overlook his darkest traits. Although, unlike Joe’s former wife Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti), Kate seems determined to at least try and be a good person.
If You were to return for season five, we’d expect to see a more chilling Joe who’s done with attempts to monologue his way to justifying his dastardly actions. How that fits in with his new high-flying life with Kate, we’ll have to wait and see.
And we also can’t escape the fact that, by Joe’s own admission, anyone that he loves inevitably ends up dead — so Kate’s future isn’t exactly looking rosy.
Show boss Sera Gamble also told Hollywood Reporter that the plan is to incorporate some type of consequence for Joe — and that this is how You, in theory, should end.
“The conversation we have among the writers, between Greg and I, and a lot with Penn is about the fact that it would be nice to end his arc with some form of justice. Guys like this don’t usually see a lot of justice from the world. That’s challenging to plot. How does Joe Goldberg go down in a world where he’s been branding people with bricks in broad daylight for years?
“And he’s cute! And he gets away with it. The deeper question that we frequently pitch in the writers’ room is, ‘What’s real justice? What would hurt him the most?'”
So, unless you count sitting in a padded business chair with the owner of a billion-pound company as justice, we’d expect a downfall to play some part in the series’ future — either in season five or beyond.
If You were to return for season five, we’d expect to see a more chilling Joe who’s done with attempts to monologue his way to justifying his dastardly actions. How that fits in with his new high-flying life with Kate, we’ll have to wait and see.
And we also can’t escape the fact that, by Joe’s own admission, anyone that he loves inevitably ends up dead — so Kate’s future isn’t exactly looking rosy.
Show boss Sera Gamble also told Hollywood Reporter that the plan is to incorporate some type of consequence for Joe — and that this is how You, in theory, should end.
“The conversation we have among the writers, between Greg and I, and a lot with Penn is about the fact that it would be nice to end his arc with some form of justice. Guys like this don’t usually see a lot of justice from the world. That’s challenging to plot. How does Joe Goldberg go down in a world where he’s been branding people with bricks in broad daylight for years?
“And he’s cute! And he gets away with it. The deeper question that we frequently pitch in the writers’ room is, ‘What’s real justice? What would hurt him the most?'”
So, unless you count sitting in a padded business chair with the owner of a billion-pound company as justice, we’d expect a downfall to play some part in the series’ future — either in season five or beyond.
And who better than those Joe has wronged (and by wronged, we mean kidnapped/killed/ put behind bars/all of the above) to serve up a nice, hot dish of justice?
Amy Leigh Hickman hasn’t given up hope on Nadia’s return, despite the character now being in prison for Joe’s crimes.
“I would love to come back and play her again,” she told Digital Spy. “I think that if she can pull off everything she did in season four, there’s not much she can’t do. So I wouldn’t put anything past her, I wouldn’t past Joe as well. I think that’s something they have in common, weirdly.”
Marienne may have escaped Joe’s murderous clutches and reunited with her daughter Juliette in Paris, but Tati Gabrielle wants to come back as well.
“I would love to come back again,” she told us. “I feel like she hasn’t gotten her piece yet, and I do think she deserves that. She’s had a hard life, man. She just needs a break. I would love to see more for Marienne. If she’s not part of taking down Joe, I just want her to be able to witness it.”
After all, Nadia’s gonna need some backup if she ever plans to get out of prison, and Marienne is the only other person who knows what really went down…
You seasons 1-4 are available on Netflix.
Source: digitaslpy.com