When Is "You" Season 2 Coming to Netflix?

Because we know you can’t wait.

Update: Save the date. You S2 lands on Netflix this Boxing Day. Find out more here, and then read the original report below.

Look, we don’t want to sound ungrateful. We love having all episodes of a TV season dropped at once on Netflix, allowing for maximum unshowered self-loathing binge-watching in a single sitting.

But it comes at a cost. Devouring a just-released TV season in one day means having to wait a full 364 days for the next season… and a crippling 365 days if it’s a leap year.

So, if you binged the first season of Penn Badgley’s deliciously dark You on Netflix when it debuted on 26 December 2018, you’re probably hunkering down for a very long year ahead indeed.

The thing is, we have reason to believe the wait won't be quite that long.

Here’s why.

Though the show, based on the book by Caroline Kepnes, is marked as a 'Netflix Original' in Australia, its first season was actually produced and aired week-by-week on the Lifetime network in the United States. (It’s like how The Good Place is a 'Netflix Original' Down Under, but airs weekly on NBC in America.)

This is where things get interesting.

According to Vulture, Lifetime ordered a second season of You ahead of its debut, but then sold the premiere rights to Netflix on account of S1’s low ratings in the States. That means S2 will be a true all-episodes-at-once 'Netflix Original' in America and internationally.

Seeing how You debuted on 9 September 2018 on Lifetime, that may mean Netflix will launch the new season in early September of 2019 too. (That, or they’ll stick to the Boxing Day date that made it such an easy and popular watch for everyone all over the world too full of turkey and ham to get off the couch.)

As ScreenRant points out, the You crew set up to shoot in November of 2018, so production is "well underway".

The question is, what does S2 hold?

Spoilers ahead.

The first season of You capitalised on Badgley’s brilliantly twisted, layered and disturbingly funny performance as Joe, a bookseller in New York City who fancied himself a romantic, but was actually a depraved stalker with a murderous streak (despite his regular claims that he’s "not a killer").

Joe, the ultimate unreliable narrator, documented his, ahem, courtship of Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), culminating in the final episode revelation (seriously, spoilers coming) that he killed her after she discovered his creepy ways. (Or did he?) Season One then closed with the surprise arrival of Joe’s ex, Candace (Ambyr Childers), who we also thought he'd murdered. Turns out...

Sure, the show is trashy, cliffhanger-heavy fun, but there’s a potent, satirical commentary on toxic masculinity being made here, emphasised by the casting of Badgley, AKA the secretly hateful Lonely Boy (and Gossip Girl) from Gossip Girl. He’s not the ‘type’ we usually assign to abusive boyfriends, and yet his misogyny is clearly unearthed as he repeatedly insists he wants only the best for his partners, which is quickly revealed to mean total, unquestioning control of the other person.

Will the second season continue to pull off that tricky balance? Or, like Dexter and House of Cards before it, will it forget that its anti-hero isn't actually meant to be admired? Fingers crossed it's the former.

Co-showrunner Sara Gamble says S2 will "diverge a little bit" from Kepnes’ second book in the series, Hidden Bodies. However, it’s been confirmed that Joe will move to Los Angeles for his next go around. Also, Gamble says, "Candace does indeed have a role in season two."

We will update this article when there is more concrete information regarding S2’s arrival.

Until then, if you can’t wait for the return of You’s sepia-toned, shallow focus close-ups, we have a suggestion...