After all this time and all the blood on his hands, You's Joe Goldberg seemingly cannot be stopped. The second half of You season 4 hit Netflix in March 2023, providing several huge twists about the identity of the Eat the Rich Killer. By the end of season 4, part 2, Joe is on top of the world, with the type of power and influence that will make it very hard to bring him down.
Despite that, You's co-creator Sera Gamble already had ideas for where the series would go next and it was renewed for a fifth season by the end of March 2023. We'll have to find out if Joe is destined to get away with his crimes or if he'll meet his match, as season 5 is set to be the show's final installment. With the upcoming episodes finally on the way, here's what we know about You season 5 so far.
When will 'You' season 5 come out?
You season 5 will premiere on Thursday, April 24. Netflix announced the news by dropping a teaser in mid-January (more on that below).
The official release date comes several weeks after the streamer revealed the show was set to return in 2025 in December. Netflix paired the release window announcement with two new posters for season 5, filled with familiar faces and cryptic clues for fans to decipher. Each poster features newspaper clippings of Joe's victims, dead or alive. The long list: Beck, Dr. Nicky, Love, Delilah, Marianne, Benjamin Ashby III, Adam, Nadia, and Tom Lockwood.
Season 5 marks the longest wait between seasons in the show's history, with new episodes arriving over two years afterseason 4, part 2. Fear not, though: It seems as though all episodes will drop at the same time for the final installment.
Joe's face is surrounded by his victims (via newspaper clippings) in season 5 teaser poster.
The second season 5 poster is a keepsake box, full of Joe's trophies and more newspaper clippings.
Is there a trailer for 'You' season 5?
Netflix dropped the first teaser for You season 5 in mid-January, giving fans a first look at Joe back on the mean streets of N.Y.C. "Hello, you. Do you remember me? Because I remember you," he says, referring to the concrete jungle. While footage of past seasons and his past victims plays, the serial killer shares an ominous monologue until the clip ultimately focuses on his harrowing glass chamber and concludes by saying, "Goodbye, you." Cue heeby-jeebies down our spines—but count us in.
Netflix dropped yet another teaser in late January. Though it doesn't indicate any more plot details, it solidifies just how creepy the final installment of the serial killer series is bound to be—as dark lighting, an agitated Joe, and one of his iconic, disturbing monologues abound! The brief clip solely features Joe looking increasingly upset as he pounds on the exterior of his glass cage in what looks like a basement, lined with empty shelves. "Hello, you. Haven’t we met?" his voiceover says. "I’m sure we must have crossed paths. Perhaps I can refresh your memory, I’m Joe. Let’s get to know each other better before we bid one last farewell." It seems we'll bid adieu to the villain with the darkest season yet.
The latest teaser for You season 5 gives a glimpse of Joe's new life as husband to one of the richest women in the world. In the clip released on February 25, Joe reflects that his wife Kate's (Charlotte Ritchie) love has "opened doors" that he "could have never imagined." Joe's derision of the rich has changed now that he's obscenely rich, and supposedly using their power to "help those who aren't as lucky." We'll have to see whether Joe's new magnanimity is all talk in the new season.
After teasing fans for months, Netflix finally dropped the full-length season 5 trailer on March 10. The new footage indicates more plot details, namely that the last installment will see Joe wrestling with fitting into and protecting his new public-facing family while slipping back into his old tendencies and dealing with the past coming back to haunt him.
"Hello, you. You’re back in the greatest city in the world thanks to the one person who could make it possible," Joe says in the trailer, referring to Kate. "Fame definitely took a bit of getting used to, but to live happily ever after, you had to bury your old self."
From the looks of it, his old stuff will be dug back up. Not only does he seem to have an affair in store with new cast member Madeline Brewer's character, but friends of Peach, who fans will remember Joe offed in season 1, are accusing him of having something to do with her death.
While Joe may attest, "At heart, I am a normal guy," he also can't help but let his tendencies get the best of him. At one point Kate and him spat, "You want us to kill everyone who’s suspicious of us for the rest of our lives?" to which he responds, "Is that so wrong, if it’s for the right reasons?" Oh, Joe, you never change, do you?
Who in the 'You' cast will return for season 5?
It's guaranteed that Penn Badgley and Charlotte Ritchie will return to reprise their roles as Joe Goldberg and Joe's new wife Kate, respectively.
It's anyone's guess whether other You alums will return to reprise their roles, but many fans have their fingers crossed that some favorite characters will appear in the final season. Some of the names floating around include Tati Gabrielle (Marianne), Amy-Leigh Hickman (Nadia), and, admittedly a long shot, Jenna Ortega (Ellie).
Kate (Charlotte Ritchie) and Joe (Penn Badgley) will begin season 5 as a married couple and united front.
Which new cast members will join 'You' season 5?
According to Netflix's Tudum, several actors have joined season 5 in new roles as Joe Goldberg's extended family, by way of Kate. Griffin Matthews, best known for playing Shane in The Flight Attendant, will play Joe's "snarky yet loyal" brother-in-law Teddy Lockwood. "A confidante who was never fully accepted by the Lockwood family, Teddy brings authenticity and empathy to a family for whom such things are a foreign concept," reads his character description.
Meanwhile, Pitch Perfect's Anna Camp will do double-duty as Kate’s identical twin sisters, Raegan and Maddie Lockwood. Raegan is described as "the cunning, cutthroat CFO of the Lockwood Corp who has her eyes on the throne and will crush any adversary…be they family or not." Less serious Maddie, however, is "a thrice-divorced socialite whose job is 'vaguely PR.' But make no mistake, a master manipulator lies beneath Maddie’s frivolous facade."
The Handmaid's Tale star Madeline Brewer will also appear in a major role as Bronte, "an enigmatic and free-spirited playwright who gets a job at Joe’s new bookstore. As the two connect over literature and loss, Bronte stokes in Joe a nostalgia for his former self, causing him to question everything his life has become."
Joe (Badgley) will have a lot of in-laws to deal with in You season 5.
Rounding out the new cast are Nava Mau as Detective Marquez, Pete Ploszek as Joe's brother-in-law Harrison, Natasha Behnam as headstrong hipster Dominique, Tom Francis as wannabe author Clayton, and b as Phoenix, who moves to New York for a fresh start.
What will 'You' season 5 be about?
Spoilers for You season 4. Netflix has revealed the official synopsis for season 5: "Well, well, well, if it isn’t the luckiest guy in New York? In the epic fifth and final season, Joe Goldberg returns to New York to enjoy his happily ever after…until his perfect life is threatened by the ghosts of his past and his own dark desires."
Gamble summarized where Joe stands at the end of season 4 in an interview with The Cut. "We kept saying that we’re going to make him go very far away so that he can come home again," she told the outlet. "We always knew we wanted him to go back to New York, have a homecoming, have his real name, shave his beard, and look like Joe Classic, but that he would be much more in the category of people he used to watch from afar. Now he has near unlimited resources. He has the support of powerful people and he has a lot less ambivalence about what he does in private. So, that’s the setup."
Classic Joe Goldberg returns in a first-look photo for 'You' season 5.
That lessened ambivalence comes from his acceptance of his dark side. We see the horror of Joe coming into his final form when he kills Nadia's boyfriend Edward and frames her for the murder, all to shut her up. However, it doesn't seem like Joe will begin killing without cause. Even at his darkest in season 4, he always felt that the people he killed deserved to die, either through his own tortured logic or because they're generally horrible. Seeing as he'll now run in very wealthy circles—think rooms full of Tom Lockwoods—he may run afoul of another mogul.
The more interesting question than, "Who will Joe kill next?" is, "Who will finally stop Joe?" At this point, several people know the truth about him and have reason to want him dead, and most of them are younger people whom he used to mentor or protect in some way. We have brilliant student Nadia, aspiring filmmaker Ellie, and even his old neighbor Paco from season 1. It would be fun to see at least Nadia or Ellie finally bring the murderer to justice, either on their own or by convincing Kate to turn on him, maybe by revealing the full details of Joe's killings that he probably definitely didn't tell her about. (Yes, there's also Marienne, but we're okay with her enjoying her low-key Paris life with Juliette offscreen.)
As for Kate, who seems like she genuinely wants to be a good person, hopefully, she'll get out of next season on the right side of justice rather than the wrong end of Joe's rage.
Kate (Ritchie) stayed with Joe after learning most of his secrets in the You season 4 finale.
Based on a promo clip released in June 2023 as part of Netflix's annual fan event Tudum, the You writers are leaning toward a figure from Joe's past returning in season 5. In the short video, Badgley teases that Joe will run into a familiar face, now that he has returned to New York, with the actor saying, "We all know there are many loose ends from Joe's past. The question is, 'Who are you?'" The clip then flashes through all the people Joe left behind: Dr. Nicky (John Stamos), Dawn (Alison Parageter), Paco (Luca Padovan), Joe and Love's baby, Ellie (Jenna Ortega), Sherry and Cary Conrad (Shalita Grant and Travis Van Winkle), Lady Phoebe (Tilly Keeper), and Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman).
What have the cast and crew said about 'You' season 5?
In a March 2023 Hollywood Reporter interview about part 2, Badgley said that new You seasons will have to grapple with Joe's ascension to immense wealth and power, and what it will take to bring him to justice.
"That’s a question for the writers and for Netflix as to the whereabouts of season five [which has yet to be ordered]," he said. "What I like is that it actually puts us in a new place, because as much as we like watching the arc of Joe, we also want him to be brought to justice. But, death or prison? Are they that satisfying? What do we even mean when we say "brought to justice"? Do we really want vengeance? Do we want revenge? Do we want torture? What is it that people want? And, what is actual justice? They’re not necessarily the same thing."
"So, I’m not sure," he continued. "But I think he actually can go to a new place and, if and when it happens, it’ll probably be this spectacular resolution that everybody’s hoping it could be, because now he has further to fall. He has power and the stakes are high. He’s not just some guy anymore."
Fans are hoping that Joe (Badgley) will finally face justice in season 5.
Badgley also shared his hopes for another season during an interview with Entertainment Tonight, revealing that he's heard at least one possible ending from the show's creative team and thought it was "brilliant."
"I certainly can't spoil it but I would think that if we don't get another season, this [season 4 finale] could be a somewhat satisfying end," he said. "Joe, at this point, he's like a post-modern icon. He's such a popular dude but...there’s gotta be, to me, a more thorough, satisfying conclusion."
The actor also spoke on Joe's relationship with Kate, saying that he thinks "she's the last meaningful relationship he'll be in. I don’t think there’s another one coming down the pike...Yeah, I think she's his endgame."
"I don't think that [they'll be together forever]. No, I don't think that relationship's going to last but it's the last for Joe. That's not even a spoiler, I don't know," he added.
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