Penn Badgley Previews Joe’s Struggle in Season 2 of You

Fresh off yesterday’s official trailer release for the second season of Netflix’s You, a new preview surfaced today on EW featuring discussion from Joe (or Will) himself, Penn Badgley, as well as showrunner Sera Gamble. With just a little over a week until the premiere of Season 2, this is a good time to check in on our creepy lead character and where everything stands with him.

“In the first episode, he’s struggling to conceive of the fact that she’s alive,” Badgley explained, referring to the surprise cliffhanger reveal of his ex-girlfriend Candace at the end of Season 1. “He’s unhinged because of how much he doesn’t understand about what he’s done and who she is.”

When asked about what’s changed this time around, he continues, “Maybe what’s different about Joe this time is he actually has somebody who wants to be with him, whereas in the first season he really does lure Beck in. In Season 2, the tables have turned.”

Fans can also expect Joe to form a bond with Love’s twin Forty, played by James Scully. “He has a male friend that he never had in the first season,” Badgley added. “He actually has a male counterpart, and for a while their relationship is more substantial than the one with Love.”

As for Gamble, she offered a broader view of the character Joe and where he stands heading into the new season. “He doesn’t relish doing bad things,” she said. “He just sees them sometimes as justified. But something that trips this character up over and over again in a way that’s kinda human and doesn’t seem so outlandish to me is that he just can’t quite admit to himself that there might be a reason why he is constantly in these situations.”

“He’s sort of taking them as they come and what’s really fun about that for the show is he doesn’t usually plan to do a bad thing,” Gamble continued. “So therefore those bad things are not very well planned. It’s a show about a guy cleaning up a series of messes that he’s made for himself.”

That last part is a bit of an understatement but also quite accurate! As for how the new season will unfold, the official trailer gives us a pretty good idea of what to expect before all is revealed with the premiere late next week. Be sure to watch that preview and get yourself prepared for what’s to come.

You Season 2 will be premiering on Netflix on Thursday, December 26th. In preparation, you can stream the complete first season now on the streaming giant and stay tuned to Dead Entertainment for news and a full review after the premiere.

About the Author

Chris Morse

Programmer by day, writer by night. Having grown up surrounded by plenty of horror movies and video games, it only made sense for Chris to combine all of these passions into one place: Dead Entertainment. Whether he's working on designs, tinkering with the platform, or just writing up the latest horror news, he's sure to be hard at work keeping the wheels turning on this website no matter what time of day it is. When not coding or gaming, you can find him donning a Cheesehead and heading to the Midwest to cheer on his favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers. #GoPackGo

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