Penn Badgley attends Collective By 92NY Presents Podcrushed: Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin & Sophie Ansari in Conversation with Anna Martin at 92NY on April 21, 2025 in New York City. Photo:
Dia Dipasupil/Getty
With Netflix’s You coming to an end, Penn Badgley is looking back on the series — and the character — that encompassed his 30s.
Badgley, 38, has been playing serial murderer Joe Goldberg on the Lifetime-turned-Netflix thriller, based on books by Caroline Kepnes, since 2018. Now, as the series prepares to end after five seasons on Friday, April 25, the actor opens up to PEOPLE exclusively about what he will miss about the project, which has been a part of his formative years.
“I think I will miss him a little bit. He’s been a profound experience for me,” Badgley says of his character Joe. “He’s not a real person. So what have I been doing? I’ve been engaging in this long [journey] my entire 30s.”
“I was 30 when I took the role. I’m going to be 39 this year. Even though the show, the way it came out, it’s actually been closer to seven years. For me, it’s like my 30s,” he continues. “I became a father while I was on this show. I only got married just before I took the role. So I’ve grown a lot and I’ve grown with Joe in a strange way.”
Badgley adds that Joe has “taught me a lot about what it is to be a man by knowing what it is not. And I don’t mean the obvious things like, ‘Oh, don’t murder. That’s bad.’ That’s very clear.”
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg and Elizabeth Lail as Guinevere Beck on ‘You’. Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock
The show’s fifth and final season follows Badgley’s Joe Goldberg as he “returns to New York to enjoy his happily ever after … until his perfect life is threatened by the ghosts of his past and his own dark desires,” per an official logline. Charlotte Richie, Madeline Brewer, Anna Camp and Griffin Matthews also star.
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Given his extensive experience playing Joe, the Easy A actor has a deep understanding of who his antagonist character truly is. From Badgley’s perspective, Joe “was an innocent boy who needed protection that he did not get, and then he grew up to become the protector he believed he never had,” he explains.
Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg in season 5 of ‘You’. Clifton Prescod/Netflix
“That was vital to his identity. So vital that he creates danger that he needs to protect people from. That is a really interesting phenomenon,” he continues. “That happens in smaller ways, in subtler ways. We are all, unfortunately, sometimes possessive, sometimes coercive, sometimes manipulative [and] jealous in relationships with the people we love the most.”
“This show is actually more about that than it’s about a killer. It’s more about what we think about love, what is true love,” he adds.
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All 10 episodes from the final season of You premiere Friday, April 25 on Netflix.
