Given that Joe Goldberg couldn’t exactly stay in the US after faking his death, it was unsurprising that the Netflix series had to shake things up with a different location. But when we found out that Joe was going to be stalking on the streets of London in You season 4, little did we know it would cause such a stir.
Naturally, seeing Joe walk miles and miles from Shoreditch to Kensington and through various other not-even-remotely-close-to-each-other city spots made for great meme potential. On top of this, the decadent lives and hang-outs of the rich London elite portrayed in the thriller series had us constantly asking: “Wait…where in London is this?”
But it turns out, there was a practical reason for the British locale switch-up. And no, it wasn’t just to create a British villain in Joe’s stalker, and it has nothing to do with how great our tea is, or how iconic our phone boxes might be. There was actually a very obvious reason as to why the Eat the Rich killer arc needed to be here.
At a recent special screening event for season 4 with the You cast, Penn Badgley was able to give some insight as to why this season took Joe across the pond and straight into London town.
“… I mean the real reason was that Paris was too expensive,” he admits.
Ouch. Sorry Londoners, looks like we weren’t the first choice location for the TV series highly anticipated fourth season. But Badgley quickly explained why Paris would have been so high up on the list and, yeah, we get it.
“It’s not that Paris is better, it’s that the Eiffel Tower looks great on a screen,” he says. “And Marianne — it made sense to go to Paris, right? And it was dreamy, and the writers do something every season where they sort of set the bar so high and we have no idea how they’re going to get out of it. And they always do somehow. So Paris was the right place for her to flee, it just wasn’t really the right place for Joe to be.”
We understand. Paris has been the idyllic setting for romance movies, rom-coms, and drama movies for decades now. A city of love, fashion, and croissants. We’ll just have to count ourselves lucky that the City of Lights was just a bit above budget for the streaming service on this one.
For all things You, check out our guides on the newest instalment, including everyone who dies in You season 4, how to watch You season 4 part 2, and the You season 4 part 2 ending explained. And of course, the answer to everyone’s question: how does Love return? And once you’re done binging, check out all the new movies coming out this year.