Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is getting one last round of doing what he does best: being a creep. Netflix has renewed You for a fifth and final season. This is not exactly a surprise, as last week Badgley suggested that the show’s fifth season would be its last. According to The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner and creator Sera Gamble will step away from her day-to-day role and hand the reigns over to Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo for the final season of You. “I’m proud of what we’ve all accomplished and feel privileged to pass the torch,” Gamble said. “I’m excited to watch and support the You team as they bring Joe Goldberg’s journey to its delightfully twisted conclusion.”
What Does the Final Season of ‘You’ on Netflix Have in Store For Joe Goldberg?
Since You premiered in 2018 on Lifetime before moving to Netflix for season two, we’ve followed the story of Joe Goldberg, an obsessive stalker willing to kill anyone who keeps him from his target. These violent tendencies cost him his wife in season three, and season four saw him escaping to London with a new identity where he sought to put his evil deeds to rest. While Badgley doesn’t believe Joe can be a hero, he did enjoy that the show took a deep look at a different side of the character. Badgley recently told Entertainment Weekly that if he could meet Joe Goldberg, he would hug him. “I would actually try to love him,” Badgely said. “Because the truth is, he’s never gotten that… He needs love. It’s like, I would hug him… I would hold him.”
Badgley himself is a man with a much stronger moral compass than Joe. Badgley married his wife, Domino Kirke, in 2017. Out of honor for her, he doesn’t enjoy doing sex scenes in any shows or movies. He almost turned down You because of sex scenes.
Regardless, Gamble believes Joe will be more dangerous than ever in the final season of You. She told E! News, “We have spent four seasons constructing these characters who are violently wealthy, but not all of them are that smart or that ruthless. 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.”
Peter Friedlander, VP scripted series at Netflix, teased the final season of You, saying, “We’re excited — and a bit terrified — to see how it all ends for Joe Goldberg, but one thing is for sure: YOU are in for an unforgettable ending.”