Euphoria Finally Confirms Plans for Season 3 Production. Here’s Why It’s Taken So Long

Euphoria fans have long awaited the return of the hit HBO series. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the show is finally on its way back. On July 12, the publication reported that the show is gearing up to start production again in January 2025, three years after the second season premiered. Additionally, the majority of the main cast members are set to return after reaching new heights in their careers since they last appeared on the series. Hunter Schafer, Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, and Sydney Sweeney are all poised to come back to the show that helped launch their careers.

It’s unclear exactly when the show will be returning to television screens. Earlier this year, there was hope that it might return next year, sources close to the situation told THR. But the show was put on hold indefinitely. THR reported that the new season will most likely have a time jump into the future and show the characters after high school.

It’s unusual for a wildly popular show like Euphoria to have this much time between seasons, especially after being renewed during the run of a previous season. However, the production was up against multiple obstacles. Here is everything that might have played a role in delaying production on the hit television show.

The writers and actors strikes

Hollywood saw a historic dual strike last summer, with the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA calling for a work stoppage to gain better protections and working conditions for unionized members. The two unions fought for a fair deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and members paused their work for struck companies until their contract was ratified. Though Euphoria wasn’t filming at the time, it’s fair to say that the strikes certainly did not bring a new season any closer.

The actors finding major success outside of the show

The principal cast have become major movie stars in their own right following the second season of Euphoria. Zendaya is one of the most in-demand movie stars in Hollywood right now after nabbing her first Emmy in 2020 for her work as the lead actress on the show. Since then, her name is rarely left out of any conversation about the new Hollywood A-list. She’s been in both Dune movies, starred in Luca Guadagnino’s zeitgeisty Challengers, and become a burgeoning fashion icon and red-carpet mainstay. 

Another major fashion it-girl, Hunter Schafer began making her foray into movies as well, appearing in the latest addition to the Hunger Games franchise and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, with a horror movie, Cuckoo, due in August. Sydney Sweeney found success with the playful rom-com Anyone But You, starring opposite Glen Powell, and Jacob Elordi became a leading man in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and played Elvis in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

Angus Cloud’s death

Cloud, who played Fezco, died of an accidental drug overdose in July 2023. The star had struggled with drug addiction and was said to have been supported by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and the team at HBO. Levinson told People that he encouraged Cloud to go to rehab. “I just said to him, ‘I love working with you and we’ve got this amazing season planned and stuff, but I need you to be sober because I got to be able to rely on you,’” he says in the interview. He says that HBO paid for his rehab treatment. Losing one of its key cast members, in addition to taking an heavy emotional toll on the cast and crew, clearly presented new challenges for formulating how the story would continue.

Controversy on set of The Idol

Back in March of 2023, The Idol, another HBO show that Levinson created in the wake of Euphoria’s success, became embroiled in controversy. Rolling Stone published an investigative exposé into the making of The Idol, which starred Lily-Rose Depp and The Weeknd. According to the publication, the show was originally set to be a feminist commentary on the trappings and pitfalls of the entertainment industry. It was originally helmed by Amy Seimetz, who then left due to conflicting contractual obligations. Levinson overhauled the show, which became, according to one source from the story, a “rape fantasy.” The show “went from satire to the thing it was satirizing,” they claimed. (And many critics ultimately agreed with that assessment.)

One source blamed The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, for wanting to “tone down the cult aspect of the storyline and pivot into something else entirely, dropping the ‘feminist lens’ through which the show was being told as a result.” According to Rolling Stone, Levinson’s version of the show was more disturbing than the original. There were more sexually graphic scenes that were described as “sexual torture porn.”

Though Tesfaye seemed unbothered by the criticism, the response to the show was no better than the criticism leading up to it.

Barbie Ferreira's supposed fallout with Levinson

An alleged feud between Barbie Ferreira, who played Kat Hernandez, and Levinson, also loomed over Euphoria. In August 2022, Ferreira announced that she would not be returning for a third season. This came after rumors that she walked off set during the filming of the show after she got into an argument with Levinson. During an interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, she shut down the rumors and said she did not walk off set but did sprain her ankle and needed to get an x-ray.

However, she said the decision for her to leave the series was mutual because both she and Levinson felt there wasn’t anywhere else her story could go. “I think there were places she could have gone. I just don’t think it would have fit into the show. I don’t know if it was going to do her justice, and I think both parties knew that,” she said on the podcast. “I really wanted to be able to not be the fat best friend. I don’t want to play that, and I think they didn’t want that either.”