With the fifth and final season of “You” bringing back many demons of Joe Goldberg’s past, all eyes have been on whether the Penn Badgley-led series could bring back Jenna Ortega as well.
Ortega, who is best known for starring in Netflix’s “Wednesday,” appeared in “You” Season 2 as 15-year-old Ellie Alves, whose older sister, Delilah (Carmela Zumbado) was killed by Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti). The end of Season 2 saw Joe giving Ellie money to leave Los Angeles in the wake of her sister’s death, leaving the door open for a potential return.
While several loose ends from Joe’s past show up in “You” Season 5 — including Nadia (Amy-Leigh Hickman) and Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) — Ortega was not among the show’s past cast members who returned for the last season.
Showrunners Michael Foley and Justin W. Lo, who took the torch from co-creator Sera Gamble, told TheWrap in an interview that they had tried to get Ortega to return for the final season but had “issues there.”
“It would have been great to get Jenna back,” Foley said. “Unfortunately, we had issues there.”
While the showrunners did not specify what type of “issues” stood in the way of bringing Ortega back to the Netflix series, scheduling issues with “Wednesday” was the reason she wasn’t able to return for Season 4 after Gamble had plotted Ellie’s potential return.
“We wanted to bring Ellie back and we heard, ‘Oh, Jenna is doing some show,’” Gamble said in a 2023 interview with IndieWire. “It’s been just such a pleasure to see Jenna this year. We have ideas for Ellie if her schedule allows her to visit us again.”
Just as production for “Wednesday” and “You” Season 4 conflicted, it’s likely similar complications arose as “Wednesday” gears up to launch its second season later this year, and Ortega’s prominence as an actor has only grown since “You” Season 2, leading to even more potential conflicts.
“You” Seasons 1-5 are now streaming on Netflix.
