Emily In Paris Season 5 Photos Reveal Gabriel’s New Look

Emily in Paris Season 4 was a tough go for Team Gabriel. After capturing fans’ hearts in earlier seasons, the hunky chef played by Lucas Bravo lost some of his allure. Much of the reason was his character’s arc, which even the actor himself criticized, but some of it was his hair. Heading into Season 5, though, there’s reason to hope again on both counts.

Gabriel’s Season 5 Makeover

Netflix released first-look photos for Emily in Paris Season 5 on Aug. 20, and one showed Gabriel with a new hairstyle. In it, he’s back in his clean-cut era, this time with highlights. The photo shows him looking dapper while shaking hands with Antoine (William Abadie). From the red door behind him, it appears they might be outside of their restaurant in Paris.

The cut is a surprise, considering Bravo’s previous comments about his hair. He told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2024 that he’d been wanting to have longer hair on the show for years but needed to “go through the transition phase where you have, like, sh*tty hair and it doesn’t look like anything.” He ended up deciding to “sacrifice Season 4 in order to have long hair in Season 5.”

Many fans didn’t approve. One even described his Season 4 look as a “glow down.” It coincided with his character becoming more of a downer and Bravo questioning whether or not he even wanted to stay on the show.

“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,” he told IndieWire in October. “I’ve never been so far away from him.”

He also said that he wanted to see Gabriel get “back to his fun, cheeky, playful, alive self,” adding, “Three seasons playing melancholic, sad, depressed, and lost is not fun anymore.”

Gabriel’s Season 5 Journey

Could this clean-cut hairstyle hint at a return to Gabriel’s old or possibly revamped self in Emily in Paris Season 5? The show has used a haircut to mark a new chapter for a character in the past. In Season 3, for example, Emily gave herself “trauma bangs” during her own transitional period.

So far, plot details for Season 5 are scarce, but Collins has teased that “Gabriel has to deal with the repercussions of his choice” to break up with Emily. One of those might be seeing Emily move on. The new photos show her cozying up to her new love interest, Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini), and enjoying new adventures in Italy.

Geneviève (Thalia Besson) is returning after stirring up problems for Gabriel and Emily in Season 5. His former longtime girlfriend Camille, on the other hand, is not after actor Camille Razat decided to move on to new projects.

Emily in Paris Season 5 hits Netflix on Dec. 18.