You Season 5 Return Date Teased

The fifth and final season of You is coming sooner than you think.

Netflix confirmed on Thursday, December 19, that You is returning in 2025. According to the synopsis, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) 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.”

In addition to Badgley, 38, season 5 stars Charlotte Richie, Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp and Griffin Matthews. The teaser art for the final season teased Joe’s “killer goodbye” and the “guilty treasures” he has in his possession.

You, which originally debuted on Lifetime in 2018, introduced Badgley as a serial killer whose obsession for a girl grew to terrifying heights. Based on books by Caroline Kepnes, the series found larger success after it moved to Netflix in its sophomore season.

Badgley previously teased that the You writers did not plan to give his character a happy ending.

“This is the way it has to be because he has an irrefutable problem and if it was just like, ‘They were made for each other, all he needed to find was somebody who kills people too,’ that’s not justice,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2019, referring to the season 3 arc between Joe and Victoria Pedretti‘s character, Love Quinn. “I think it’s reflective of reality because I don’t think people who kill are like, ‘I just need somebody who can do the same.’”

As Joe developed a bigger fanbase, Badgley questioned a potential redemption arc, explaining to Salon in February 2023, “The show is never a clinical portrait of either a serial killer or a man with mental illness. So the fun that we’re able to have when we do all of this is that this is not meant to be real. And to me, that doesn’t take anything away from it. It’s meant to be an exploration, an exercise. There’s an element of fantasy and camp to it that lets us do a lot of things, and, again, I think we benefit from it.”

He continued: “If you’ve done things that Joe has done, change would mean reconciling in yourself that you have murdered more people than you can count readily on one hand. If you’re really there, I think what would require your reconciliation, let alone that with any kind of judgment in society, is more than you’ve indicated at this point you’re capable of, because you’ve done those things.”

Related: Everything Penn Badgley Said About Joe Goldberg’s Potential Ending on ‘You’

A fitting conclusion. Penn Badgley is far from Joe Goldberg’s biggest fan — and the actor has often expressed his interest in watching the fictional character’s story come to an end. You, which originally debuted on Lifetime in 2018, explored the serial killer as his obsession for a girl grew to terrifying heights. Based off […]

With Joe returning to New York, there have been various theories about possible onscreen twists. Badgley joined in on the fun by teasing that someone familiar could come back in the final season.

“I’ve heard you’re on the edge of your seats, waiting and theorizing about the epic conclusion to You,” Badgley said in a pre-recorded message at Netflix’s TUDUM event in June 2023. “More importantly, considering what, or should I say who, Joe will come up against as he finally returns to New York. Though I can’t say who yet. We all know there are many loose ends in Joe’s past. The question is: Who are you?”