Emily in Paris’ season four finale (warning: spoilers ahead!) ended on quite an uplifting note, with Emily moving to Rome for the near future to run Agence Grateau’s Italian office, and a promising new romance with Marcello Muratori. The same optimistic ending was true for her BFF, Mindy, who appeared to have a new hit song on her hands and an invite to become a judge on Chinese Pop Star. (Hey, sometimes getting disqualified from Eurovision and breaking up with Nico can result in some great things!)

Meanwhile, Gabriel was awarded a Michelin star (anyone else totally surprised at how fast that happened?), Alfie found happiness with a mysterious new girlfriend, and Sylvie landed a major account with the Muratori family (okay, so it’s only a six-month trial run, but still). And yes, Gabriel now wants Emily back after her sweet gesture speaking French, but complicated relationships are Emily in Paris’s thing, so bring it on.

Still, Netflix actually has to renew Emily in Paris first—and assuming it will—we Zoomed with creator Darren Star from Rome to get the lowdown on all those developments in the season four finale while looking ahead to what’s next for your favorite Parisian—and Italian–crew.

_{Eugenio Franceschini as Marcello, and Lily Collins as Emily in episode 409.}

 Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix
If Netflix knows what’s good for them, they will say yes. And assuming they do, should we plan for more Emily in Rome, especially since one of the final scenes calls back to the pilot when Emily first arrived in Paris?

Yeah, I think we will definitely see more Emily in Rome if we have a season five. Emily [is now] there. There’s an office, and I think the story is taking us there for the moment. So we will spend more time in Italy, but it doesn’t mean we’re leaving Paris.

Speaking of Italy, let’s talk about the character of Marcello. You needed somebody who has rich chemistry with Emily. Why was Eugenio Franceschini right for the role?

We looked at a number of Italian actors, and I wanted to cast an Italian actor, not an American actor. And we found Eugenio, and he was just terrific. Lily read with him when he came to Paris. I felt like he was somebody who had a different flavor, different vibe than other men Emily had been with.

_{Eugenio Franceschini as Marcello.}

 Stephanie Branchu/Netflix
We also meet Genevieve, who is quite the character. Emily and Gabriel have no idea what she’s been up to, so what can we expect from her? What did you want out of that character?

I wanted to bring in a character who Emily would, in a way, be a mentor to—Emily 2.0, like a young Emily, but also give her this sort of interesting backstory that was connected to Sylvie and her husband. Sylvie has a past. Sylvie has a whole full life that we’re always kind of discovering. All we know about Sylvie is what we know about her from work, and so we’re finding out more and more about Sylvie’s life. And this is a part of Sylvie’s life and her very complicated relationship with her husband.

Is Genevieve redeemable? Could viewers end up loving this character, or are we going to constantly hate her for what she did?

I don’t know. What has she done, really? Aside from flirting with Gabriel who Emily isn’t with, she hasn’t been so bad.

Didn’t she tell Emily that Gabriel said in French that he never wanted to be with her again?

Yes, that’s true. She did say that.

I was like, okay, wait a minute. [Laughs.]

Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

_{Thalia Besson as Genevieve in episode 407.}

 Courtesy of Netflix

In these later episodes, we find out Alfie is dating somebody. Is that a storyline that you see hopefully playing through to next season, and might we meet this new person in his life?

Yes, definitely. Yeah, we definitely will want to see Alfie next season. And I think there’s still a question mark [about] who he’s dating. We don’t know who this person is yet, so absolutely.

So you’ll be casting that role…

We’ll discover next season. Absolutely, yes, like who this is. There are some thoughts.

Meanwhile, Camille says she plans to adopt. What are your views for her in a possible season five?

I don’t know how much we’ll be seeing Camille in season five. I think the idea that she thought she was going to have a baby, and then to have dealt with that disappointment, and then to discover there was a way to do it with Gabriel that he didn’t want to pursue—[as a result], she realized this was something that she wanted to do on her own. So I don’t know what’s going to happen with her in season five. I’m not sure how much we’ll see of that story right now. But that’s sort of where she’s heading.

_{Camille Razat as Camille in episode 405.}

 Stephanie Branchu/Netflix
In terms of new characters, it was fun to see Rupert Everett looking like Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments.

[Laughs.] He was so much fun to work with on the show. I wanted somebody who has had a past with Sylvie in Rome, a flamboyant character. And Rupert himself spends a lot of time in Italy, and so I thought it’d be a fun thing to do together.

_{Rupert Everett as Giorgio Barbieri in episode 410.}

 Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix

So fun. Also, we got Debi Mazar in a fun little cameo, harkening back to your Younger days together.

Yes, exactly. And Debi lives in Florence. So when we were going to shoot this commercial in the show, and there was this sort of glamorous-type movie star that we were casting in the commercial, I thought of Debi. And Andy Fleming, who’s directed the episode, also thought of Debi and called her and said, “Hey, come down to Rome. Do you want to do this for us?”

We must talk about France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron, who makes a cameo this season. How hard was that to get her?

Lily and I had met Brigitte Macron, Madame Macron at the Élysée Palace when we were here for our last premiere. She was a fan of the show. She was in the first episode—not actually her—but the character of Brigitte Macron. I think she got a kick out of it and said, “Hey, I’d love to do a cameo on the show if there’s an opportunity.” And I thought, “Really?” And so we kind of found a way for her to appear on the show and came to her and asked her, and she was wonderful. She was just so much fun to have. Because she’d already been introduced on this show from the very beginning, it was actually so much fun to have the actual real Brigitte Macron appear on the show.

_{Lily Collins as Emily, Brigitte Macron as herself, and Thalia Besson as Genevieve in episode 407.}

 Stephanie Branchu/Netflix
Finally, because Emily is kind of starting this new chapter in Rome, might we see Lily’s new haircut make its way to the character of Emily for season five?

I cannot answer hair questions like that. That’s outside of my pay grade. [Laughs.]