Why 13 Reasons Why Is Ending With Season 4

Brian Yorkey explains the thinking behind ending 13 Reasons Why with season four.

By Chris Harnick May 15, 2020 3:30 PMTags
13 Reasons Why Season 4Netflix

13 Reasons Why wrapped up the story from the book it's based on in season one. And then it came back for season two. And three. And now season four, which will be its last. Why did the show go beyond the Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) story? And why is it ending now?

Series creator Brian Yorkey said the producers "were strongly driven by the very conceptual hook of the book in the first season, of this mystery and in unfolding the mystery, you get to delve into the secrets that every teenager keeps and the things that affect their life along the way." While he was interested in exploring that with a different set of characters, "we fell in love with these characters and wanted to know what happened next," he told EW.

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"Our North Star has always been that the inciting incident of the whole series is Hannah's death and the tapes she leaves behind, and so we want to follow that to its logical conclusion and I think and hope that's what we do in season four."

The fourth and final season of 13 Reasons Why will feature the students of Liberty High School's senior class trying to keep their dangerous secrets buried and facing "heartbreaking choices that could impact their futures forever," Netflix said in a press blast.

Watch: "13 Reasons Why" Stars Reflect on Katherine Langford's Exit

Yorkey said the decision to end with season four came to him in the middle of making season two when they came to a place "where it felt like a four-season story."

"I'm always a little bit suspicious of high school shows that go beyond four seasons because high school is four years long. So when somehow high school shows become seven and eight seasons long, don't get me wrong I watch them all, but I tend to get a little suspicious of something that began as a high school show. And it felt like bringing these characters to their graduation and to scattering to their next things felt like the logical ending point. So for a long time, the idea has been, should we be so lucky to have the opportunity, we would do four seasons of this. So certainly going into breaking story for season 4, we knew it was the end," Yorkey explained.

The new season of 13 Reasons Why drops Friday, June 5 on Netflix.