You Showrunners Tease Wild Alternate Series Ending That Showed Dead Joe Goldberg as He ‘Realizes He’s a Ghost’

Warning: This post contains spoilers for You season 5.

In the final season of You, Joe Goldberg finally gets what he deserves — but the series finale could have had a completely different ending.

The hit Netflix series ended with Joe (Penn Badgley) locked in a cage, trapped alone in the prison cell after his last love interest, Bronte (Madeline Brewer), finally brought him to justice for the murders of Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail) and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti).

The final scene shows Joe lamenting his loneliness as he finishes a copy of Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. He then receives a letter from a “fan” who expresses her desire to become his next victim, resulting in Joe concluding: “Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe… it’s you.”

Though many fans were satisfied with how Joe finally received his comeuppance, You showrunner and executive producer, Michael Foley, told The New York Post that the team didn’t land on the show’s ending “until very late in the season.”

“Throughout the series, there was a shared belief among the writers and the creators that Joe wouldn’t get away with his crimes,” he explained. “We came into the season knowing that we didn’t want to redeem him, that he would get his comeuppance, that he was going to face some of those whose lives he ruined. And most importantly, we knew he was going to be made to face himself.” 

Death was “too easy” an ending, and the thought of putting Joe in a permanent cage was more than appealing. “We liked him not knowing the touch of a lover,” Foley added.

Co-showrunner and executive producer Justin W. Lo also told the Post that there were several alternate endings the team was playing around with.

“We went through many different options, one of which being that he did die at the hands of Bronte. I was even remembering a version where he was shot. And [the audience] didn’t realize that he shot until the very last episode, and then he realizes he’s a ghost,” Lo revealed, adding that the last ending was “a very early iteration.” 

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You is available to stream in full on Netflix.