SPOILERS are ahead for You Season 5, now streaming for Netflix subscribers.
You Season 5 has just dropped this week, which means one of the best shows to binge-watch on Netflix has finally ended after seven years. While the fifth season includes all sorts of cameos of actors from past seasons, prepare to be disappointed if you’re hoping for the return of Jenna Ortega’s Ellie Alves like we were. Ortega was busy filming Wednesday, but the creators did share they had a return originally in mind for her character.
When Jenna Ortega didn’t return for Season 4 of You, the actress shared she was both "devastated" and “bummed out” she couldn’t play Ellie again due to her Wednesday shooting schedule, and apparently that happened again for the last season. As You showrunner Michael Foley told Business Insider:
That was complicated by the fact that she's doing 'Wednesday' in Ireland and it just seemed like a non-starter... We just couldn't figure out a way to make it work.
Despite Jenna Ortega never making it on You following her Season 2 run, the showrunners did have an idea about how Ellie could return if it wasn’t for Wednesday getting in the way. They told the publication that Ellie would have probably come back on board to be a benefactor to Dominique and Phoenix, who work throughout Season 5 to get Penn Badgley’s Joe behind bars and are successful. Foley also said this:
That was a thought that I'm sure when we were putting things together, we felt like maybe we could make this work, and we just simply couldn't.
While it sounds like the showrunners were crafting up a way that would put Ellie in opposition with Joe by the end of the show, co-showrunner Justin W. Lo also had this thought during the interview regarding Ortega’s character:
You could make an argument for pro-Joe because he was there for her during a very difficult time in her life. But you could also say, I think Ellie's very smart and she probably knows that he had something to do with her sister's death, even though it was Love. So she could have turned against him as well.
When Jenna Ortega originally appeared on You for Season 2, the actress was 16 years old during filming and hadn’t yet broken out with her bigger roles in Scream or Wednesday, which both came out in 2022. In the role, she played Joe’s neighbor when he moved from New York to Los Angeles for a fresh start. They ended up becoming close acquaintances, and Joe developed a soft spot for her. However, Ellie’s older sister is in fact murdered by Joe’s love interest that season, Victoria Pedretti’s Love Quinn.
Ellie’s involvement with You ended on a positive note with Joe sending her money to move to Florida, but in the years since her last appearance, it’s possible she could have put together that Joe was somewhat involved and worked with Dominique and Phoenix to take him down. It definitely would have added layers to the final season, which gave us mixed feelings, but oh well! We can look forward to Jenna Ortega returning to Wednesday when the second season premieres on August 2, 2025.
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