‘Wednesday’ Got in the Way of Jenna Ortega Returning for ‘You’ Season 4

Jenna Ortega appeared in You Season 2 as Ellie Alves. The precocious teen befriended Joe Goldberg, helping him build a social media presence to impress Love. However, their relationship took a turn, and Ellie was forced to go on the run. Fans have been dying to see Ellie return to get revenge on Joe, but Ortega’s work on Wednesday made that impossible for season 4.

Joe ruins Ellie’s life in ‘You’ Season 2

In You Season 2, Joe moves into an apartment in Los Angeles, where he meets the manager Delilah (Carmela Zumbado), and her younger sister Ellie (Jenna Ortega). Joe befriends Ellie and protects her from the predatory Henderson. Then Delilah uncovers Joe’s glass cage hidden in a storage unit — and Joe locks her inside.

Joe asserts that he plans to let Delilah go, but Love finds her and kills her to protect Joe’s secrets. Joe eventually tells Ellie a watered-down version of the truth. He and Delilah got tangled up in the affairs of the Quinn family, and now Delilah is dead. Joe tells Ellie to run and promises to send her money.

‘Wednesday’ got in the way of Jenna Ortega returning for ‘You’ Season 4

In 2019, Ortega told Teen Vogue that she would love to see Ellie return to You and exact her revenge. “It would be amazing to see Ellie come back and take control of her life,” Ortega said. “I just want her to be an even bigger badass. I don’t want her to come back and be extremely vulnerable and sad.”

“We have to remember that even though people still find Joe somewhat charming, he’s evil, he does terrible things, and he gets away with them because of his gender and race and his position in society. [Ellie] has so much potential and so much talent that she shouldn’t waste because of him.”

Since the release of You season 2, Jenna Ortega’s fame has skyrocketed. The now 20-year-old actor appeared in the revamped Scream franchise. Afterward, she starred in Netflix’s wildly successful original series Wednesday. The series caused a conflict with Ortega returning to You.

“We wanted to bring Ellie back, and we heard, ‘Oh, Jenna is doing some show,'” showrunner Sera Gamble told 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.”

Although Ortega has a very busy schedule, fans shouldn’t rule out seeing her again in the future. “Any character who’s not dead who knows anything about Joe, it’s fair game to try to exert any justice,” Gamble added. “And any character who is dead, he has a really active imagination.”

Joe seemingly stops sending Ellie money in season 4

At the end of You Season 2, Joe promised to send Ellie money and not abandon her. Season 3 shows Joe following through on this promise. However, Ellie hasn’t been mentioned at all in You Season 4 Part 1.

After Joe faked his death and fled to Europe, it would understandably become much harder for him to keep supporting Ellie. It seems like he abandoned the teen after all, which gives Ellie one more reason to hate Joe.

You Season 4 Part 1 premieres Feb 9, 2023, and Part 2 March 9, 2023, only on Netflix.