Everyone’s favorite stalker is back on Netflix on December 26th: Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), bookstore manager-turned-killer, returns for You Season 2, and this time Joe has moved to sunny L.A.
“You know, love has taken me to some pretty dark places,” Joe says in the trailer, referring to how he stalked and eventually killed his girlfriend, Guinevere Beck, in season one — among other victims. “But Los Angeles has got to be as dark as it gets.”
Joe calls himself “Will” in Los Angeles’ sunny climes, as he finds himself enamored once again, this time with the wealthy Love Quinn.
“At least one scene comes to mind that’s gorier and scarier than anything we had in Season 1,” showrunner Sera Gamble told TV Guide. “You will know it when you see it. Episode 2 of the season has my single favorite shot that I have been a part of in my entire career. My career is full of blood and gore and monsters. It’s also beautifully shot and the director who shot the second episode lavished a lot of love. Joe is forced to do something he really doesn’t want to do.”
Badgley, known for his turn in Gossip Girl, has discussed in the past his efforts to make Joe watchable without making him too likable. “My biggest concern, to be honest, with this entire project is that if in order to make Joe more palatable ultimately, which I think is some of the task at hand, in making him more palatable, do we risk diluting the very thing that he needs to be, which is kind of a disgusting human being?” he told People. Not everyone found him disgusting, though; fans thirsted for Joe on Twitter, to which the actor replied: “He’s a murderer.”
The series is based on a pair of books by writer Caroline Kepnes. The second book, Hidden Bodies, informs the new season. If the showrunners are faithful to the original, we’re looking at one gory, horror-packed good time. “Hypnotic and scary,” Stephen King said of the book. “Never read anything quite like it.”
