Euphoria showrunner Sam Levinson has confirmed that the long-awaited third season of the hit HBO series will see a five-year jump and has teased that the characters will be starting off “out of the safety net of school”.
Set in the fictional town of East Highland, California, Euphoria premiered in 2019 to both critical acclaim and criticism over its risqué themes.
The first two seasons of Euphoria follow teenager Rue Bennett (Zendaya) navigating high school, as she is dealing with drug addiction and relapses. Her classmates Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer), Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney), Lexi Howard (Maude Apatow), Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), and Maddie Perez (Alexa Demie) all deal with their own issues, varying from breakups to substance abuse and mental health issues.
The show has won nine Emmy awards for its first two seasons, including two for Zendaya, and one for Colman Domingo.
At the HBO Max presentation in London on Wednesday, Levinson said the third season will be set five years from the point when season two ended.
“The one thing we all agreed on is we can’t go back to high school – although many, many shows have had 30-year-old high school students, we’re not. Five years felt like a natural place because if they’d gone to college they’d be out of college at that time,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“We basically pick up Rue south of the border in Mexico, in debt to Laurie, trying to come up with some very innovative ways to pay it off.”
Laurie is a drug lord introduced in the second season and is played by Martha Kelly.
Levinson continued: “And then Cassie is living in the suburbs with Nate, they’re engaged and she’s very addicted to social media and envious of what appears to be the big lives that all of her high school classmates are living at this point in time.”
The second season ended with Cassie getting in a physical fight with former best friend Maddy, minutes after Nate breaks up with her.
“I feel strongly this is our best season yet…I will say that Cassie and Nate do in fact get married. I’m confirming it. And I promise that it will be an unforgettable night,” Levinson added.
Jules, Levinson said, will be in art school and “very nervous about having a career as a painter and trying to avoid responsibility at all costs”.
“Maddy is working in Hollywood at a talent agency for a manager, she’s obviously got her own side hustles going. And Lexi is an assistant to a showrunner played by Sharon Stone, who is just absolutely delightful and a true icon.”
Rosalía, Trisha Paytas, Natasha Lyonne, Danielle Deadwyler, Eli Roth and Marshawn Lynch will be joining the show in the forthcoming season.
Notable names missing from the list of returning cast members include Nika King, who starred as Rue’s mom Leslie; Austin Abrams, who starred as high schooler Ethan; and Algee Smith, who portrayed Cassie’s ex-boyfriend McKay.
Storm Reid, who played Rue’s younger sister, Gia, was also absent from the list. She previously revealed that she would not be returning to the show.
HBO executive Casey Bloys said in September this year that the third season would be released in spring 2026, three years since the second season was released in 2022.
The Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023 contributed to the delays, while schedule conflicts between lead actors led to more disruption. Many members of the cast, including Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, and Sydney Sweeney, saw their careers skyrocket since the show premiered, and have gone on to bag lead roles in other TV shows and major films.
Levinson acknowledged the scheduling conflicts with the actors, saying: “You want everyone to be there because they want to be there, and they’re passionate about the work and excited about the story that we’re telling.”
“It’s exciting to write this show because there are aspects that I can draw upon in my own life, but at the end of the day, it’s also about telling the story of what it’s like to be out of the safety net of of school and trying to figure out who you are in the world and what matters to you. … The stakes are a bit higher than they were in the past because the consequences are real and no one’s gonna swoop in and save you.”
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