How many more times can Joe Goldberg get away with murder?
With the fourth season of You now streaming on Netflix, the future of the hit drama—and the serial killer it follows—may well be on viewers’ minds. In the latest installment of the series, Joe (Penn Badgley) turns over a new leaf in London, where he’s now working as a professor, but his past catches up to him when an anonymous killer starts targeting members of his rich new friend group and pinning the murders on him. By the end of episode 5, he discovers who’s been framing him and embarks on a mission to stop his tormentor.
That’s where season 4 ends for now, as the rest of the ten episodes hit Netflix on March 9. But what’s next for Joe after this chapter ends? (Will he finally get caught?) Here’s what we know.
Has You been renewed for season 5?
Not yet, but a renewal seems highly likely considering the show’s popularity. Showrunner Sera Gamble has also expressed her plans for the series to span multiple seasons. She told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2019 after season 2, “I am not scared at all of saying that we definitely could follow Joe for several more seasons.”
What would season 5 be about?
It’s still too early to predict, especially since the setup for the following season depends on what transpires in season 4, part 2, which arrives next month. “You’ll know what the next season would be when you see the end of this season,” Gamble told The Hollywood Reporter this year. “We tell you what the idea is.”
Despite the long wait ahead, Gamble is already playing with plot ideas for season 5. She told THR:
“We have an idea for season five that we’re excited about. It was never anyone’s intention to run this one into the ground. 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.”
Who will be in the cast?
Unless the You team throws us a total curveball, we’re banking on Penn Badgley to continue leading the show as Joe. As we’ve seen in the past, he usually finds himself in a new crowd—sometimes even in a new city—each season, so we wouldn’t be surprised to hear of new casting announcements once season 5 is confirmed. As for the current season 4 cast, which ranges from Lukas Gage to Charlotte Ritchie to Tati Gabrielle, we’ll have to wait until part 2 arrives to see who makes it out alive.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.