Euphoria Season 3

Euphoria has been a smash success for HBO with Zendaya leading the now all-star cast of characters.

HBO’s blockbuster and star-studded teen drama Euphoria has had two record-setting seasons so far, and thankfully for its legions of fans, a third season has been confirmed.

During Season 2, aired from January 9th to February 27th last year, HBO announced that Euphoria would return for a third season. Unfortunately, that was the end of the good news regarding Season 3, which over a year later, has yet to start filming.

Despite the delay for the next season, it won’t be as long as the wait was for Season 2, which was delayed by two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Amazingly, even with the lengthy delays between seasons, Euphoria Season 3 will see most of the cast returning for another semester in East Highland High.

EUPHORIA IS ABOUT A LOOSE GROUP OF FRIENDS, ENEMIES, AND FRENEMIES NAVIGATING HIGH SCHOOL

The first two seasons of Euphoria follows Rue Bennett (Zendaya) as she returns home following a stint in rehab and immediately relapses into a world of drugs, alcohol, and casual hookups. Soon she meets Jules (Hunter Schafer), a transgender girl, and starts up a relationship, falling very quickly in love with disastrous results at the end of the first season.

Along the way, Nate (Jacob Elodi) is tormenting Jules, going so far as to catfish her while weaseling his way out of criminal charges and abusing his latest girlfriend, Maddy (Alexa Demie).

Nate’s troubled upbringing led him to become the clear villain of the show, following his upbringing at the hands of his father (Eric Dane); though during Season 2 he finally stands up to his dad, Nate’s still a horrible person. Proof of that is his treatment of Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), who ended the second season having a psychotic break due to her treatment at his hands.

Lexi (Maude Apatow) is Rue’s former best friend, and while she started mainly in the background of Season 1, the sophomore season brought her into the limelight (in more ways than one). Staging a school play based on her classmates’ wild antics, Lexi proved to be the shrewd, insightful catalyst behind the explosive finale.

Talking to L’Officiel, Apatow admitted that the original script for Season 2 was vastly different, and the climatic stage performance came from her experiences as a theater kid in high school.

THE RETURNING CAST FOR SEASON 3

Returning for Season 3 is most of the core cast, Hunter Schafer (Jules), Jacob Elordi (Nate), Alexa Demie (Maddy), Algee Smith (Chris), Sydney Sweeney (Cassie), Maude Apatow (Lexi), Storm Reid (Gia), Nika King (Leslie), Austin Abrams (Ethan) and Colman Domingo (Ali). Despite ending last season behind bars, Eric Dane insists in an interview with Esquire that Cal Jacobs won’t be in jail for long.

The most important actor not returning for Season 3 is Barbie Ferreira (Kat), as the model decided four seasons working on the series was enough and wanted to leave on a high note.

Fans flocked to her portrayal of Kat, with her storylines that focused on body positivity and acceptance of being queer praised as some of the series’ best. Another cast member not returning is Javon Walton, though in his case, it’s because of his character, Ashtray, ending the Season 2 finale in a shootout with police.

Angus Cloud, who plays Fez, is returning even if, like Eric Dane, his character is in jail to start the season. In an interview with i-D, Cloud remarked that he was cast on the show not because he was destined to be a star but because he looked like a drug dealer.

Regardless of how it happened, his ability to make the audience feel for Fez, even when he’s being misguided and making a horrible mistake, has caused him to become a fan favorite.

Chloe Cherry (Faye) was introduced last season as Fez’s associate and is expected back, perhaps becoming part of the core group of students in the new season. Dominic Fike (Elliot) is returning, and he’ll likely play a major role in Rue’s story moving forward now that Jules is (mostly) out of the picture.

THE STORY OF SEASON 3

While the first two seasons go to some dark places, Zendaya discussed in an interview with Variety that we saw Rue at rock bottom, and she hopes the feeling of happiness at the end of season 2 carries over into a more hopeful third season.

Fans expect a time-jump to take place based on narration from Rue at the end of the season, saying she was “staying clean for the rest of the school year.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series star wants to “explore the characters out of high school,” which could mean more plots away from the East Highland High campus.

This could include scenes in prison with Fez or Nate visiting his dad, or it could show more of the drama-at-home experienced by the main cast. Both of those plot points are likely to be revisited, as is the ongoing feud between Cassie and Maddy over Nate, with the fight during the season finale being a new beginning for the escalating conflict.

Another likely possibility is Rue’s troubles with the drug dealer Laurie, played by Martha Kelly, over the small issue of losing $10,000 in pills. Though it was ignored during the Season 2 finale, the looming specter of a vengeful Laurie over Rue’s sober happiness could bring everything crashing down.

Whatever happens, in an interview with Deadline, Season 2 guest-star Colman Domingo claims that showrunner Sam Levinson wants to get deeper into the characters and take very big, creative swings.

Not content to rest on his laurels from the previous award-winning seasons, Levinson will put the entire cast through the emotional wringer and see what emerges on the other end of the traumatic experience.

THERE IS NO RELEASE DATE FOR EUPHORIA SEASON 3

Euphoria Season 3 hasn’t even started filming, making a 2023 release unlikely. The earliest expected timeframe is mid-2024, with the possibility of a late 2024 release. Zendaya’s shooting schedule for Dune: Part II pushed back the start date, while other stars have had their commitments in the meantime, from Sydney Sweeney filming Madame Web to Hunter Schafer’s modeling campaigns.

Fans of the series are used to waiting between seasons, and given Season 3 may be the show’s final season; they’re happy to wait as long as it takes.