HBO has released the trailer for the third and final season of Euphoria. But much has changed in the three years since we last saw our problematic cast of Gen Z-ers from East Highland High.
This season skips ahead five years, and it looks like the former teens are out in the world living their messiest lives. Rue (Zendaya) is on the run on the southern border of Mexico, but drug dealer Laurie (Martha Kelly) has finally caught up to her. Jules (Hunter Schafer) might be a sugar baby, or at least according to Maddie (Alexa Demie), and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), now an OnlyFans creator, is getting married to Nate (Jacob Elordi).
The years in between have not been kind to the cast and crew of Euphoria, with multiple claims of curdled relationships, toxic sets, and SAG-AFTRA violations rising to the surface. Creator Sam Levinson seemed to be at the heart of many of these tumultuous storms, having fallen out with producer Kevin Turen (who unexpectedly passed away months later in 2023), as well as with co-stars Zendaya and Barbie Ferreira. The latter actress decided to leave Euphoria after its second season. “Sam writes for things that he relates to,” Ferreira, who plays Kat Hernandez, said in an interview on Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast. “I don’t think he relates to Kat.”
Season 3 also marks the first since the death of co-star Angus Cloud, who played the fan favorite drug dealer Enzo in the show’s first two seasons.
There’s also the public backlash against Sweeney, who’s had a more-than-interesting past year thanks to her controversial American Eagle jeans (or genes?) ad, the fiasco surrounding her box office flop Christy, and reports of her being a registered Republican voter, earning her praise from US President Donald Trump. More recently, it looks like Sweeney may have fallen from MAGA grace, as “transvestigation” conspiracists have begun making claims online about the actress’ gender identity.
Even Elordi doesn’t seem too convinced about Season 3. “I finished filming a new season just recently, and it’s a completely different thing,” the actor told Gwyneth Paltrow in an episode of Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors. “Whether [the season] works or not… I don’t know. There’s a chance that what I’ve done is not good.”
Euphoria’s final season is set to stream on HBO Max on April 13.
