Hunter Schafer (left) and Zendaya in ‘Euphoria’
Eddy Chen/HBO
When Euphoria ultimately returns for its third season, Rue and pals will now not be in highschool.
Sources inform The Hollywood Reporter that a number of components are behind HBO’s resolution to delay manufacturing on the third season of the drama starring Zendaya, notably conversations between the community and creator Sam Levinson on the place the motion can be set after the characters go away highschool. Initially slated to start within the coming months, manufacturing is now pressured to hit pause because the artistic crew and community hash out the brand new world.
Sources near the collection say Levinson’s plan is to characteristic a time bounce when the third season ultimately returns — ideally in 2025 however now not assured. Additionally unclear is the variety of episodes that may make up season three as Levinson and HBO travel on the arcs for Rue (Zendaya), Nate (Jacob Elordi), Jules (Hunter Schafer) and Cassie (Syndey Sweeney).
On Monday, HBO mentioned in a press release that it was permitting its star-studded solid to “pursue different alternatives” whilst all events “stay dedicated to creating an distinctive third season.” HBO declined additional remark outdoors of its preliminary assertion.
The present has helped launch the new movie careers of Zendaya (Dune), Sweeney (Anybody however You) and Elordi (Saltburn), however the solid stays in first place on Euphoria. That implies that ought to a castmember line up a brand new movie or TV undertaking, they could need to pause it each time cameras are able to roll on Euphoria, or movie each initiatives concurrently. The manufacturing additionally may work round their schedules, which can be one other consider lining up when filming can start once more. With the high-wattage solid in demand and desperate to work, nonetheless, sources say HBO felt it was unfair to stop them from taking roles within the interim.
Season two of Euphoria, which aired in early 2022, noticed a lot of its characters as juniors or seniors in highschool. The season two finale made no point out of commencement and as an alternative featured a play that went off the rails and a lethal shootout that wrote off Javon “Wanna” Walton (Ash) and noticed the late Angus Cloud’s character Fez arrested. Barbie Ferreira (Kat) additionally revealed final April that she and Levinson made the mutual resolution that she wouldn’t return. “I don’t assume there was a spot for [my character] to go,” she mentioned on the time.
Sources say that Levinson is a notoriously deliberative author. In a late February interview with GQ, Emmy-winning visitor star Colman Domingo (Rustin) tried to clarify the delay for season three, describing Levinson as somebody “who writes and rewrites and writes and rewrites once more” and saying the creator was “ within the existential query of who we’re proper now. Our souls. That’s what he needs to determine with season three.”
Levinson additionally spent just a few years juggling Euphoria with HBO’s ill-fated music drama The Idol. That collection, which was introduced in June 2021, confronted a artistic overhaul a 12 months later, earlier than it will definitely aired as a five-episode order (down one from what was initially conceived) in summer season 2023. HBO canceled the present in August 2023. Levinson additionally misplaced an enormous chunk of 2023 because of the writers strike, which additionally contributed to the delay.
Highschool-set reveals — assume Glee, Beverly Hills 90210 and Saved by the Bell — have traditionally struggled to evolve because the narratives transfer past commencement, including a uncommon strain on the following season of the hit collection.