Emily in Paris creator Darren Star said season 5 has “the right amount” of Gabriel — despite Lucas Bravo being missing from most of the episodes.
“He really wasn’t consulted [on Gabriel’s season 5 arc], and he just chose to come back to the show,” Star told Decider on Friday, December 19. “The story line worked out.”
The creator went on to say that “we see the right amount” of Gabriel in season 5.
“Because that’s not where Emily’s story was, or where we ever planned it to be in season 5,” Star continued. “The story line wasn’t about Emily and Gabriel. At the same time, it was great to have him and keep him in the world of the show.”
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Season 5, which started streaming on Thursday, December 18, showed Gabriel briefly visiting Rome before returning to Paris. He ultimately accepted a new job opportunity that took him away from Paris but he resurfaced briefly to reflect with Emily (Lily Collins) about their history before leaving again.
“We want to go on a journey,” director and executive producer Andrew Fleming exclusively told Us Weekly. “At no point was Luke ever leaving the show permanently.”
Fleming clarified why Bravo, 37, wasn’t around as much as usual. “He did have a commitment. He had a movie that he was doing,” he noted. “So we worked around that.”
In the final scene of the season, viewers see Gabriel writing a letter to Emily where he invited her to visit him in Greece, which left the hit Netflix series on a cliffhanger about the fan-favorite couple’s future.
“He’s important. He’s part of the DNA of the show,” Fleming explained to Us. “When he and Emily are in a scene together, something undefinable happens. They have this chemistry. They do. There’s just something about the two of them that’s very watchable.”
He continued: “Looking ahead, they’re part of each other’s journey. Who is to say who Emily is going to end up with, but Emily and Gabriel are going to interact with each other. Stuff is going to happen [but] I really can’t say anything about what’s going to happen next season.”
Bravo’s limited appearances came after he surprised viewers with his criticism about Gabriel’s arc on Emily in Paris.
“The ‘sexy chef’ was very much part of me in season 1 and we grew apart season after season because of the choices he makes and because of the direction they make him take,” Bravo told IndieWire in October 2024. “I’ve never been so far away from him.”
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Bravo admitted that Gabriel “slowly turned into guacamole” before questioning the “lack of risk” on screen.
“In season 1, there was a lot of me in him. But as they made him kind of unaware of his surroundings, of the dynamic, always victimizing and always being completely lost in translation and oblivious to anything that is happening around him and being manipulated by everyone, it kind of became not fun for me to shoot,” he noted. “Or to see a character I love so much and brought me so much, being slowly turned into guacamole. I really grew apart from him.”
According to Bravo, he attempted to voice his complaints. “[But] there is only so much I can do in the limits of a script,” he added. “I tried for seasons to bring nuances but we don’t have much liberty on set. We cannot change a word or an emotion. They know what they want and we just have to comply.”
At the time, Bravo didn’t rule out stepping away from the show.
“It makes me question if I want to be part of season 5 — because my contract ends at season 4. I really want to see if Gabriel gets back to his fun, cheeky, playful, alive self,” he continued. “Because three seasons playing melancholic, sad, depressed, and lost is not fun anymore. It’s a comedy, everybody is having fun around me, everybody is jumping around, and I’m just slowly sinking into god knows what.”
Before season 5 premiered, a source exclusively told Us that “Lucas is in the show, he’s just organically not as big a story this season.”
Emily in Paris is streaming now.
