Penn Badgley Teases A Very Different Fourth Season For You

When Netflix's "You" first debuted in 2018, many audiences were torn over its main character. The series introduced Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) as a creepy loner in New York who fancies himself as an old-school romantic, but he's a deeply troubled individual. He quickly starts obsessing over Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), who gives him the slightest bit of attention. He'll also lock up and kill anyone who he thinks is getting in the way of a perfect life with whoever it is he's pursuing. Sure, he occasionally protects people from other creeps, but that still doesn't change the fact that he's a stalker.

Season 2 repeats the same formula, but it finds Joe in Los Angeles after he flees New York to escape any and all questions surrounding Beck's disappearance. It's here that he meets Love Quinn (Victora Pedretti), a young woman who is secretly as violent and messy as he is — which quickly turns out to be a recipe for disaster. Season 3 continues that story as they've settled down with a child, but it isn't long before the blood starts flowing again. Netflix recently confirmed that "You" will return for Season 4, but surely this can't all happen again — can it?

Well, series lead Penn Badgley recently teased how "You" Season 4 will be vastly different.

When speaking with Collider, Penn Badgely opened up about whether Joe will ever be happy in the series — or if he'll keep just searching the world for the one. "So this is probably the most significant question the show will continue to answer until it's over," he said of the series. He pointed out that so far, the show is looking at how warped society's perception of masculinity is, adding, "we've done what we can in terms of offering a deconstructive lens of masculinity and romantic tropes." But Badgley pointed out that it's difficult to know what to do with him because of all Joe's actions and the show's complex themes it explores.

Badgely added, "Where is justice for him and for us? Does that mean happiness? I mean, it's like, does a person like Joe deserve to die? Yes. But does anyone deserve to kill him?" He has a point. It sounds as if Joe is going to wind up in some precarious situations whenever Season 4 eventually arrives on Netflix. But that might validate the killer even further, as the actor noted, "If he was tortured and killed by a woman, he would, in his mind, almost be vindicated. He'd be like, 'I am the most persecuted man in all of history, and I can be a martyr for love.'"

The star went on to say that Season 4 "could be quite different" because it'll be "more about Joe's relationship with himself." Hopefully, this means he's going to therapy. Badgley also pointed out that the series "isn't about a murderer" and that it's more about "taking the mistakes that we make in relationships to the extreme for the sake of a good story."