Ramy Youssef Says ‘Ramy’ Will End With Season 4 & He Wants Yorgos Lanthimos To Appear

Just the other day, I said not enough people are talking about Hulu’s “Ramy” season three on my timeline. And maybe I’m just following the wrong people on social media, but “Ramy” is one of the best shows on television that continues to be hilarious and cringe, filled with so many uncomfortable situations. Yet it’s also layered with so much depth with ideas of faith, belief, identity, purpose, and in this season, ideas of “Maktub,” the Arabic word for what is already decreed, or established; “as it is written,” if you will. It speaks to scripture and whether our lives are pre-ordained and how much wiggle room there is for us to change what could be pre-destined (or at least that’s one interpretation).

‘Ramy’ Season 3 Review: Ramy Youssef’s Comical, Rich Look At Muslim Family Life Is The Best One Yet

Co-starring Mohammed Amer, Hiam Abbass, Amr Waked, and May Calamawy (who you’ll remember from “Moon Knight”), “Ramy” is a challenging, provocative look at its title character, Ramy (Emmy-nominated actor/writer Ramy Youssef), a first generation Egyptian-American who is on a spiritual journey in his politically-divided New Jersey neighborhood. “Ramy” essentially depicts the challenge for many young, modern-day Muslims, being caught between your faith and your community and your desires and how those two things can conflict. At least, that’s the case for Ramy, who sees life as a moral test. He is caught between the millennial generation that thinks life has no consequences—of which he is part of—and his own desire to abide by the rules of his faith. It’s complex, funny, insightful, and hard to unpack unless you’re taking a really deep dive into it. It’s a rich and compelling show that’s also about family—much of that universal—and often about—not the beliefs of religion, per se — but the anxieties of religion and what guilt, worry, and angst have to say about our relationships to faith (this is all a longwinded way of imploring you to watch this funny and perceptive show; read our review here)

Regardless, it sounds like “Ramy” is coming to an end. While not officially greenlit for a fourth season on Deadline’s Twenty Questions podcast, when asked about a possible fourth season, Youseff said if they receive a fourth season, it’ll be their last. At least for now.

“I think in broad terms, I think this would be the last season for a very long time,” he confirmed. “We would be very grateful if at some point in the future— six, seven years went by, whatever— if I had a lot more to draw from that was new [we would do more. But] I first started actively working on this show with my co-creators [back in] December 2016. So, this December, it would be six years of my life that I’ve been working on this every year of my life, and I think it would be cool to put it down for a bit and step into different parts of my life and come back.”

“But, in terms of this immediate upcoming season, to close this chapter, I see Ramy’s character turning a different corner from where we see leave him at the end of season three,” he continued. “The more we made the show and especially going into season three looking back at season one and two and then thinking what the next two could be, we realized, consciously, maybe even more so than subconsciously, we had been tracking an ego death for this character. We start with the hope of who he thinks he is and slowly peel back that reality. And a fourth season could show us who he actually is going to be in a more—probably in a more real way than we’ve ever seen. That would be really exciting.”

Speaking of stepping into other parts of Youssef, the actor might be alluding to just acting and starring in other people’s work. He already did just that in “Poor Things,” Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ strange and surreal new film starring the fantastic cast of Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Jerrod Carmichael, Margaret Qualley, Christopher Abbott, and of course, Youseff.

“I can’t believe I got to be a part of it; it was so special; it was an unbelievable acting experience,” he said, “[It was] one of the most amazing creative experiences I’ve ever had.”

Youseff also said he invited Lanthimos, who has acted in a few things, including “Attenberg” (2010), to appear on his show. Amusingly enough, Youseff suggests he pestered his director too much about it. “I think I asked him to appear on my show too many times,” he said with a laugh. “I asked him, and he was like, ‘you know what, just leave me alone.’ So, I’m trying to give him his space. I asked him if I was allowed at the [‘Poor Things’] premiere and I’ll let you know if I am.”

Youseff said most of his “Poor Things” work is with Stone and Dafoe and that he won’t stop trying to convince Lanthimos to appear on “Ramy.” “We can only pray,” he said with a laugh. “We are working on him.”

“Ramy” season three is streaming on Hulu now.