After a four-year hiatus Euphoria is back, and quite different than where it left off.
Most notably there’s the time jump, which finds the show’s troubled cast of characters no longer in high school but now pursuing their own paths in the real world. At the season three premiere in Los Angeles on Tuesday, creator Sam Levinson noted, “I liked the idea of sort of the wild west of adulthood and this frontier feeling where anything is possible. That was sort of the backdrop that interested me, is who had these characters become and what are the consequences to those actions?”
As can be seen in the show’s trailers, the season picks up with Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) getting married, Lexi (Maude Apatow) and Maddy (Alexa Demie) working in Hollywood and Zendaya‘s Rue still trying to navigate her way out of some drug-related complications. Another major change comes following Angus Cloud‘s death in July 2023, and how to handle the storyline around his character Fezco.
“I loved Angus very deeply and I fought very hard to keep him clean while he was here. I think when he passed away, it made me sort of step back and go what is the story I want to tell, what is it I want to say? What matters in life?” Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter. “And if I was going to do another season I wanted to make sure that it spoke to kind of a larger idea about meaning and purpose and who we are. It made me want to kind of tackle the idea of faith and belief in something greater than ourselves.”
He also discussed the decision to keep Cloud’s character alive in the story, which will be revealed more fully as the episodes roll out. “I couldn’t keep him alive in real life but I could keep his character alive in the show,” Levinson emotionally continued. “I kept him alive and the character has got a great arc. I think he’d be very proud of it.”
Season 3 additionally served as Eric Dane‘s final TV appearance, following his February passing after a battle with ALS. Levinson said Dane called him a few months before shooting to tell him about the ALS diagnosis “and I just said, ‘Look Eric, I love you and I promise however you show up we’re going to make it work, we’re going to find a way.’ We just tried to create the most comfortable environment and he’s magnificent in this season.”
On top of the show’s normal buzz, this year comes with an additional element as Zendaya recently hinted that Euphoria‘s new season would be its last. Levinson dodged confirming that on the carpet, though, saying, “I go into every season like it’s the last season, I really do. I write it like it’s the last, when I put down my pencil at the end of the day or when I lock that final sound mix I go is this something I’m proud of? If this was it, am I happy? And I leave the rest on God’s desk.”
And do the show’s stars believe this to be the end? Sweeney pleaded innocent, claiming, “Everybody’s been talking about what may or may not happen but I honestly have no idea,” while Demie admitted, “I don’t know — it feels like it.”
For now, Euphoria returns to HBO on Sunday.
