Euphoria Season 3 Is Finally Happening
March 28, 2024: Details are emerging about why exactly Euphoria season three is merely a vague concept in HBO’s content strategy. According to a Variety report, the final installment of the racy teen melodrama was dogged by rewrites until the network announced the official delay earlier this week. The first version of season three passed HBO’s vibe check ahead of last year’s writers’ strike, but it did not sit well with Zendaya, the show’s star and executive producer, who gave “significant input” to creator Sam Levinson, per Variety. When the strikes ended and Levinson reworked his initial draft, taking into account the sudden death of actor Angus Cloud, it was HBO’s turn to instantly veto the script. That version had Zendaya’s Rue grow up to be a private detective. The Challengers and Dune actor reported pitched an idea for Rue to get clean and be a surrogate instead, but that also didn’t pass HBO’s vibe check, nor did other ideas, like a movie finale or special to end the series.
The network even considered replacing Levinson amid the creative disagreements. Still, HBO hopes to have a new and improved draft of the script by October 1, with the intention to film in 2025. Let’s hope Euphoria gives us some resolution if it does return next year. The last season left off with Rue owing kingpins a couple of g’s without resolving that major story line. Maybe Lexi will write a play to wrap it up.
June 11, 2024: Sam Levinson doesn’t want grown adults playing teenagers anymore. Who can blame him? Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO content, confirmed to Variety that the gang have graduated. “Sam is working on it,” he said.” There’s been a lot of back and forth … One of the issues I think that Sam is thinking about is that he doesn’t want to have it in high school anymore.” Without the teen-drama artifice, what will the show become? HBO doesn’t seem to have a firm answer. “There’s a lot of back and forth about where to set it and how far in the future to set it and all that stuff,” Bloys said. “But I think he’s got a take that he’s excited about, and he’s busy writing.” The core cast will remain the same, the exec added.
Meanwhile, the Euphoria diaspora continues to reach higher stratospheres of fame, doing cover stories for magazines the world over, making them unable to escape journalists’ questions about their breakout show’s fate. Colman Domingo, for his part, fielded inquiries in a June 11 interview. “Sam’s my friend. I haven’t talked to him about this because I know that it seems that there’s a lot of different stories swirling around. I have no idea,” Domingo told GQ. “I like to mind my business. Until it’s something that affects me, I mind my business.”
July 12, 2024: Euphoria managed to overcome all odds stacked against it — scheduling conflicts, a whole monthslong Hollywood strike, the Sam Levinson of it all — and prevailed. HBO has confirmed to Variety that the teen soap will begin its third season in January 2025 with all principal cast members returning. “I am thrilled that we are ready to begin production on ‘Euphoria’ in January. We could not be happier with our creative partnership with Sam and this incredible cast. We look forward to bringing this new season of ‘Euphoria’ to life for the fans,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vice-president of HBO programming and head of HBO drama series and films. If you crunch the numbers, that means production begins three years after the second season aired. Poetic.
July 24, 2024: We’re slowly starting to believe that this is actually happening. “I will be returning to season three of Euphoria,” Colman Domingo confirmed during a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live. He added that filming will “get started early next year,” which is in line with HBO’s previous promise that the long-delayed show would finally start filming in January 2025 with all principal cast members returning. Domingo guest starred as Rue’s sponsor, Ali, so it looks like the rest of the cast is being fleshed out as well. After this long of a break, we’re just glad the casting department didn’t lose his number.
November 9, 2024: School’s not canceled for Euphoria High. As the show’s stars continued to get cast in big projects (Zendaya in a new Christopher Nolan movie, Jacob Elordi working again with Emerald Fennell, Sydney Sweeney getting her bag in ads), fans started connecting the dots. If the show’s main cast is filming in early 2025, how on earth is HBO going to get the gang back together to film in January? The answer is… We don’t know, but HBO is denying the rumors that the show is canceled. Euphoria is going into production in 2025. Nothing has changed,” an HBO rep told The Guardian. Okay, they’re still going back in 2025, but maybe not during the first quarter.
