Updated With More Details: ‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Production Delayed, Network Still Committed to 2025 Date
After rumors started swirling online about HBO possibly scrapping plans to develop the third season of Euphoria, the network has clarified that production has simply been delayed, and the cast has been allowed to book other jobs in the meantime.
This is coming from Deadline, to whom the network said in a statement:
“HBO and Sam Levinson remain committed to making an exceptional third season. In the interim, we are allowing our in-demand cast to pursue other opportunities.”
The in-demand cast includes Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, and Colman Domingo. Shooting was originally scheduled to start within the next couple of months, and the network was aiming for a 2025 release. Sweeney even confirmed at the SXSW premiere of her new movie Immaculate that the HBO series would be the next project for her. However, Deadline reports that no official start date had been set, though HBO is still aiming to premiere the new season next year.
The network is probably trying to figure out the third season with showrunner Sam Levinson and perhaps ran into some creative disagreements. Apparently, there were talks of doing a movie instead of a third season, but the idea was dismissed. It’s clear something is happening behind the scenes, and it’s no longer an issue about booking the talent like it may have been in the past. Could the disastrous reception of The Idol have played a role here, with Levinson’s creative leverage no longer being what it used to be?
Euphoria is the last of the three big HBO shows that was to start production with a 2025 aim. Both The White Lotus and The Last of Us have been filming new seasons since mid-February after successfully navigating the WGA strike last year and their in-demand cast. The show was originally launched in 2019, with the second season arriving in early 2022 due to COVID-19 delays. It will be more than three years in between seasons 2 and 3 if it even gets made. Since season 2 came out, Angus Cloud, one of the show’s main actors, passed away.
UPDATE: More details have surfaced on the delay of Euphoria. TheWrap was first to report that Levinson has pitched a new season in which the main characters will be leaving high school, which could accommodate the three-year gap between seasons but would require some time to implement. The network, according to the trade, has agreed to give Levinson the time he needs to rewrite the scripts.
An insider told TheWrap that the delay was not caused whatsoever by the reception of The Idol last year:
“No one has lost faith in Sam as a creator. He is the driving force creatively on this show, he is still working with the same creative executives that he always has been, but since the show is changing that process is taking longer.”
The network is going back and forth regarding the arcs of its major characters, The Hollywood Reporter added. Last year’s WGA strike also caused major delays in writing.
The spotlight will inevitably turn to the actors’ contracts sooner rather than later. Their conditions have not surfaced yet, but if the network is adamant on meeting a 2025 release date, it’s possible people like Zendaya or Jacob Elordi may have clauses that could free them up if they do not shoot the third season this year as originally planned.
Their agents are probably praying that Levinson never delivers the scripts for season 3 so that they can sell their clients to movie studios and sign them much more lucrative deals. Zendaya, for instance, is now in the biggest movie of 2024 so far, Dune: Part Two, and could be lobbied for an Oscar nomination for either that movie or the upcoming Luca Guadagnino pic Challengers.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
