Netflix’s massively popular thriller series You takes quite the departure from form in season 4. Instead of being the usual murderous antihero, Joe Goldberg instead becomes the detective, hunting down a serial killer who hopes to frame him for taking out a bunch of wealthy socialites.
The twist is being praised as a refreshing reboot for the series — after all, how many women can Joe possibly keep falling in love with, and then destroying countless lives as a result? — but as it turns out, we have You star Penn Badgley to thank for the season.
In the latest episode of the Podcrushed podcast, Badgley explained how he attempted to worm out of his contract that obviously required intimacy scenes, but he was shocked at how his request was immediately accommodated. And quite honestly, the season is better for it.
“I asked [showrunner and executive producer] Sera Gamble can I just do no more intimacy scenes,” Badgley explained. “This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. I don’t think I have ever mentioned it publicly. One of the main things was, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always playing the romantic lead?”
“Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me,” he continued. “It’s got to the point where I don’t want to do that. So I said to Sera [Gamble, co-creator], ‘my desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero.’ But I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You can’t take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept. So how much less can you make it, was my question to them.”
Badgley added, “She didn’t even bat an eye. She was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, it had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”
That’s putting it lightly. The new whodunit format lends an entirely new vibe for the fourth season, in addition to Joe Goldberg now posing as a literature professor and shaping young minds. Where the series will head in the second half of season 4 is anyone’s best guess, but for now we have Badgley to thank for forcing the producers hands into taking the series down a new creative direction.
