You Season 3 will premiere on Netflix this year, so we’ll have to wait a little while to find out what happens next. The good news is that there’s plenty to keep you occupied in the meantime, including casting news and shooting updates. Although storyline specifics are scarce at the moment, we’ve done our utmost to guess what the next season’s twists and turns will entail.
Penn Badgley, who played stalker/killer Joe Goldberg in season two, will reprise his role, as will Victoria Pedretti, who played his season two paramour Love Quinn. The series is based on Caroline Kepnes’s books You and Hidden Bodies. Season 3 of You will be based on Kepnes’ second novel, Hidden Bodies, and hopefully her third book, You Love Me, which was just published.
About You Season 3
| Genre | Psychological thriller, crime & drama |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons released | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Original release | September 9, 2018 –present |
| Main character | Joe Goldberg |
Quick Recap of You Season 2
The show purposefully fooled audiences into believing Joe murdered his ex-girlfriend Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers) – a perfectly reasonable inference, given his behavior – just to see the assumption flipped on its head as she appeared to confront him in the final scene.
You’s protagonist had not only escaped from Candace but had also tried to move on from murdering his girlfriend Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) and her best friend Peach Salinger in the second episode, posing as Will Bettelheim (much to the chagrin of the true Will) (Shay Mitchell).
Joe/Will seemed to be on a quest to show that he could redeem himself, in addition to finding a new job at another bookstore. This had a lot to do with the fact that he’d set his sights on a new love interest, Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti from The Haunting of Hill House).
But, in a shocking twist, Love turned out to be much like Joe, killing Candace and Delilah (Carmela Zumbado) to preserve her relationship with the show’s main character.
Watch Now: You Season 2 on Netflix
You Season 3 Release Date
According to Deadline, Netflix’s Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos revealed the release date for You season 3 in an investor video, announcing that it will be somewhere between October and December this year.
Season 3 of You will begin shooting in November 2020. Season 2 premiered on December 26, 2019, and shooting took place between February and June of that year. So, if season 3 follows a similar timeline (four months of filming), we should expect the shooting to end in March 2021. That suggests a September 2021 release date, which corresponds to what Sarandos said.
You Season 3 Trailer
The short answer is that we don’t know when a You season 3 trailers will be released. However, depending on the season 2 release schedule, we can make a guess. The previous season premiered on December 26, 2019, and the first trailer was released on December 16. On December 5, a teaser trailer was released. That means a teaser trailer will be released three weeks before the show premieres, followed by a full trailer ten days later. Keep an eye out in September 2021 if our forecasts are accurate.
You Season 3 Plot
The plot of You seasons 3 is being held under wraps, aside from the clues we can get from the current cast of characters. By the conclusion of season 2, we should all hope to see the repercussions of the events.
Season 3 will pick up where the season 2 finale left off, with Love describing how she stalked Joe to make him fall in love with her (just as he stalked her). She has admitted to the murders of Delilah and Candace. But, to save Joe from killing her in retaliation, Love discovered she was expecting his child.
Joe’s obsessed fixation had already turned to their new neighbour as the pair moved to the suburbs to have and raise their son. “This is only the beginning,” he said from behind his door, staring at her. Since this is precisely where I needed to be to find You.”
Moreover, some story threads from the previous two seasons, such as Ellie’s whereabouts, remain unresolved. Joe continues to give her money, but Ellie may not be able to keep on the run for much longer. Although Joe is unaware of harming a girl, fans have speculated that Ellie may be the one to pull him down.
About the fact that Forty was shot and killed, his screenplay version of Beck’s novel The Dark Face of Love is still floating about and should be made into a movie, exposing Joe.
For a start, Love is expecting a child – or is she? Is the kid Joe’s, if she is? Another thing we learned at the end of season 2 is that love isn’t always reliable. She assassinated both Delilah (Carmela Zumbado) and Candace (Ambyr Childers), as well as admitting to Joe that she was the one manipulating him, not the other way around.
There were a couple of dead bodies at the end of season 2 if you remember: Love’s brother Forty (James Scully) died in the season finale, and Henderson (Chris D’Elia) was accidentally killed earlier in the season. Candace and Henderson’s deaths were pinned on Forty, while Delilah’s murder was staged as a suicide. But who’s to say these ghosts won’t haunt Joe and Love in the suburbs in the future? Season 3 introduces a slew of new characters that can create problems for the murderous couple.
Who is Joe’s new prey?
At the end of Season 2, Joe’s new neighbour was introduced to the audience for the first time. It was just a sneak peek, but it was enough to pique fans’ interest in what’s to come by seeing Joe with wavy hair and a sundress lounging on a backyard lawn, engrossed in the pages of a book about which he undoubtedly has at least one opinion. For months, fan speculation about her personality swirled, but in November 2020, we learned a bit more about who she was.
You Season 3 Cast
We received a slew of new You season 3 cast announcements in November 2020. (see all their character backgrounds at Variety). Here’s the main cast, which includes the 13 new characters, as well as the new cast members they’ll be joining and the returning actors:
- Penn Badgely: Joe
- Victoria Pedretti: Love
- Scott Speedman: Matthew
- Travis Van Winkle: Cary
- Shalita Grant: Sherry
- Saffron Burrows: Dottie
- Dylan Arnold: Theo
- Tati Gabrielle: Marienne
- Michaela McManus: Natalie
- Shannon Chan-Kent: Kiki
- Ben Mehl: Dante
- Chris O’Shea: Andrew
- Christopher Sean: Brandon
- Bryan Safi: Jackson
- Mackenzie Astin: Gil
- Ayelet Zurer: Dr Chandra
- Jack Fisher: Young Joe Goldberg
- Mauricio Lara: Friend of Young Joe
We also got news of two (obvious) returning cast members earlier this year: Badgley will reprise his role as Joe, and Victoria Pedretti will reprise her role as Love. Given how Season 2 concluded, with the pair in an unholy relationship, Joe’s continuing involvement in his life was a foregone conclusion.
Conclusion
Netflix has a guilty pleasure smash on its lips, no matter where Joe and Love’s warped relationship takes us next. Since author Caroline Kepnes is currently working on books three and four in her You series, You season 3 can face a Game of Thrones-style challenge in terms of keeping up with the source material.