Season 4 of You drops on Netflix tomorrow, which sees our favorite murderous antihero Joe Goldberg with a brand new name and identity, heading abroad to track down his season 3 love interest Marienne in Paris. But not before he ends up landing a cushy university position in London teaching literature to undergrads.
Ahead of the new season — or the first half anyway, since the last five episodes drop a month later on March 9 — Netflix has released the first six minutes of the new season. In addition to recapping the series of events that took him to London, the sneak peek gives us a look into Joe’s classroom, where he befriends one student in particular; a young woman named Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) who is being compared to this season’s Ellie (previously played by Jenna Ortega).
“Finally, he’s in a position that befits his level of understanding of the books he talks about all the time,” You showrunner and executive producer Sera Gamble told Netflix’s Tudum. “He’s genuinely good at it and it’s a pleasure for him to do it. I can say this without spoiling too much: Even when his life is completely falling apart, he still does enjoy teaching class.”
But while Nadia may be this season’s Ellie, there isn’t exactly a Beck or a Love this season. Newcomer Charlotte Ritchie plays Kate, a wealthy art gallery director and Joe’s love interest, but the big twist is that this season is a murder mystery. Instead of killing people, Joe now must track down the serial killer who is picking off Kate’s socialite friends, and who has also developed an unsettling obsession with him.
So in addition to being the perfect job for the bibliophile, the literary professor job ties in with the brand new murder mystery trope. Gamble likewise told Tudum that it was executive producer Greg Berlanti who had the idea of making the fourth season a whodunit.
“It’s fun to put someone who knows literary tropes into one of the tropiest stories possible, and it fits nicely with the idea that he’s genuinely going to be different now,” Gamble teased. “He’s done murdering, he’s learned from his mistakes and he’s going to do what it takes to right the karmic scales.”
“That doesn’t just mean grow a beard and teach about American literature,” she adds. “It also means maybe that you have to try to protect the very people [whose fate] previously would’ve had you at least look the other way, if not actively participate in what was going on with them.”
It should be a wild ride of a season. The first five episodes of You season 4 drop on Netflix Feb. 9, with the final five episodes arriving on March 9.