Emily in Paris creator Darren Star claims Lucas Bravo never planned to leave the show despite criticizing his character’s story line.
Star, 63, teased the upcoming season of the hit Netflix series during an interview with Deadline published on Monday, June 23.
“Her love life is always complicated,” the showrunner said. “We have Marcello, Lucas Bravo is going to be back this season, so we have some interesting, surprising developments in terms of her love life.”
Previously, Bravo, 37, had aired candid public grievances with the show, leading to speculation that he might not return. Star, however, called the drama “just a misunderstanding. I think he was never intending not to come back.”
Season 5 recently began shooting in Europe, with Bravo reprising his fan-favorite role as the soulful yet mopey chef Gabriel, an on-off love interest of Emily (Lily Collins), the plucky American in Paris. At the end of season 4, Emily relocated to Rome with a big job promotion and a new beau, Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini).
Last October, Bravo did a series of interviews where he complained about the direction his character was heading in.
“Life is short. It takes five months to shoot this series,” Bravo told France’s Le Figaro newspaper at the time, adding, “I do not want to be a part of a cog that does not tend to take the intelligence of viewers into consideration.”
He said that he wanted to see Gabriel exhibit more “panache.”
That same month, Bravo told IndieWire that he had grown “apart” from the character.
“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 explained. “I’ve never been so far away from him.”
He said his disappointment with Gabriel “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. 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.”
Several months later, however, the actor struck a happier tone, telling a reporter on the red carpet in April that Emily in Paris season 5 is “the best” yet.
“I had lunch with Darren a few days back, and he told me a bit without telling me too much,” Bravo teased at the time. “I think fans are going to lose it. It’s the craziest one so far.”
Off-camera, Bravo’s love life is heating up. He’s been dating actress Shailene Woodley and happily sharing glimpses of their romance via Instagram. The twosome sparked dating rumors in March while packing on the PDA during a trip to Paris. Two months later, Bravo posted his first social-media pic of Woodley, 33, sharing snaps of the pair hanging out at the Stagecoach Festival.
Before Woodley, Bravo hadn’t made many headlines about who he was dating in real life. He did discuss his relationship deal-breakers in a 2020 Glamour interview.
“I like communication,” he said. “It’s the basis of everything. I don’t like when there is an elephant in the room and the person chooses to just run away or slam the door or sit in a corner with their baby face on. I don’t like pouting or when someone avoids a conversation.”
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