YOU season 5: Why did Jenna Ortega not appear? EP explains

We knew entering YOU season 5 on Netflix that there would be a number of great callbacks to the show’s past. We certainly go that here in the form of a few different people turning up! Beck had some flashbacks via Louise, and we even saw during a montage a return of Zach Cherry as Ethan, a prominent character from the first season.

Yet, we recognize that there is an elephant in the room here: The lack of an appearance from Jenna Ortega as Ellie. She is arguably the most famous of the show’s former cast members, and she had a big part back in season 2. So why not bring her back here?

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Well, as you would imagine, the lack of an Ortega cameo really just came down to scheduling. Speaking to TV Insider about her absence as well as Victoria Pedretti (Love), here is what executive producer Michael Foley had to say:

Well, it’s also about just being alive. With Victoria, we had already done that when Joe was in London. He had a vision of her in the cage, and she sort of gets to him. We just thought we’d be going to that well again. With Ellie, she was filming Wednesday in Ireland. So even though we went down the road of trying to figure out a way to get her in, it ultimately just became impossible logistically.

Now, we do tend to think this makes sense, even though we were hoping to see her. Our general sense here is that Ellie can at least know that there was closure, given that Joe was finally arrested and from our own personal reading, she is going to spend the rest of her life behind bars. It is hard to imagine anything else taking place.

Related – See more of you YOU season 5 ultimately concluded

Were you hoping to see Jenna Ortega appear in YOU season 5?

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This article was written by Jessica BunBun.