Penn Badgley on ‘Well-Played’ Ending to ‘You’ & Preparing for Twins! (Exclusive)

Penn Badgley is ready for the final season of his Netflix show “You.”

“Extra” spoke with Penn, who called it “bittersweet” to say goodbye to his character Joe Goldberg.

He shared, “It’s sweeter than it is bitter. Actually, to be honest, practically, the show needed, the concept needed to come to a close. Everybody was in agreement there — the writers, me, everybody involved, the fans. We need to bring this man to his rightful end, and I think we did so.”

As for what has it meant for him to play Joe for five seasons, Badgley answered, “So many things… I’ve learned how to be a better, you know, these icons in life — like man, father, husband — what do these mean? I think I’ve had to meditate on that, you know, like, what does that mean? How can there be, like, a new pattern for family life if you think about, you know, what role does a man play in it?

“Because it’s not the ones that he plays, right? You know? And I don’t mean the obvious stuff like murder. I mean the subtler stuff, the stuff that we’re all capable of and actually the stuff that we all do, which is, like, we see others as objects. We become jealous and sort of maybe slightly coercive or manipulative in the way we share things because we want something from somebody, you know? It’s just like that, that stuff that everybody kind of can’t help but do, the way the desire changes love into some other thing, that’s where I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Penn dished on where we’ll see Joe in the new season, saying, “In New York, home. He’s actually in Mooney’s again. He owns it as a charity case because he’s a billionaire… He’s, like, something of a celebrity figure.”

As for the end of the series, Badgley teased, “There's a critical way in which Joe is sort of, or at least he's attempted to be caught and deconstructed, right? He’s always a slippery fish in the end. Like, does he get out? I won’t tell you. But the way that we try to catch him and deconstruct him finally this season is a very, I think, very nuanced and really, really well played by the writers and everybody involved. Hard to do. I wouldn't say it if I didn't believe it. I think we ended it very well.”

Madeline Brewer is joining the show in the finale season. Penn raved, “I think people are gonna love her, personally... I think she’ll probably be an icon. She might give Love [Quinn] a run for her money, you know?”

Penn also talked about doing a “Gossip Girl”-style voice-over in Kristen Bell’s show “Nobody Wants This” more than 12 years after she narrated his show “Gossip Girl.”

When asked if Kristen was surprised by his voice-over, he commented, “I don’t know if she was surprised because I haven’t spoken to her. I don’t know that Kristen and I have ever met. I don’t think we have... I don't think we've met, yeah, which is funny."

He joked, "Would the space-time continuum sort of like flutter and rupture? Is it the same person meeting the same person? That’s a secret I’ll never tell. Oh, sh*t, I just gave you gold!”

As for staying in touch with his “Gossip Girl” co-stars, Penn answered, “I’ve had some of them on the podcasts. It’s sort of like college roommates, you know, you just move on. You move on. There’s a love there. Live your life.”

Next up, Badgley is awaiting the arrival of his twins with wife Domino Kirke.

He admitted, “Who’s ready for twins? Nobody is ready for twins. We’re as ready as we can be!”

Penn elaborated, "There’s a meme – any parent, I think can relate, and if they can’t, they’re lying… It’s like ‘parenting at 8 in the morning,’ at 8 a.m., and it’s a picture of Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers and he’s wearing a cardigan and he’s like, ‘Hmm.’ And then it says ‘parenting at 8 p.m.’ and it’s Tom Hanks in “Castaway” covered in blood and he’s screaming and he’s got a long beard. That’s, you know, that’s, uh, so parenting with twins is maybe like you start as “Castaway” and then you become the clown from “It”? I don’t know.”