Fans have been asking for the third season of Sam Levinson drama Euphoria for nearly two years, but rumors recently began swirling that the show has been canceled.
This week, in a statement to Variety, an HBO spokesperson attempted to shut down the speculation, saying “HBO and Sam Levinson remain committed to making an exceptional third season,” but “in the interim, we are allowing our in-demand cast to pursue other opportunities.” Variety added that the scripts for Season 3 are “still being written.”
But one actor from the series, who asked for anonymity in direct messages with The Daily Beast, feels that Season 3 is a long shot—and that the waiting between seasons has been nothing short of frustrating.
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“Since January of 2022, we have had a start date of March that turned into June, that turned into January,” they said. “And then they kept pushing every month from then on. It was two full years of HBO telling all the actors we were going back soon, so we couldn’t take some jobs.”
HBO declined to comment further beyond their original statement about Season 3’s expected release, while Levinson’s team told The Daily Beast, “HBO has answered all those speculative questions and assured everyone of a third season as originally planned in 2025.”
The set of the teen drama, which follows the sex- and drugs-infused lives of students at a California high school, has certainly had its fair share of controversy—from the The Daily Beast reporting of on-set spats and accusations from background actors that the production was a toxic environment, to show creator Sam Levinson being accused of stealing ideas from a female filmmaker.
Stars of the series have shut down rumors of toxicity on set, with Barbie Ferreira saying “a lot of it is untrue,” and Colman Domingo calling the complaints “a normal workday.” But some things, like holding back actors from taking work after having a part in making a successful TV show, should not be normal, the unnamed actor told us.
“Before last week I couldn’t take any TV jobs,” they said. “Since they have put it on hiatus, I can now take any job. But what sucks is that we all had more momentum right when the show came out but now it’s been 2 years of waiting.”
What’s more, the actor doesn’t believe that HBO’s announcement this week that the show’s third season will return in 2025 is likely to happen—even though pushing it beyond next year would would mean the main cast (including huge stars like Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi) would be released from their contracts and therefore able to renegotiate salaries.
And one major reason for that skepticism is the sudden passing of producer Kevin Turen at just 44 years old last fall, with the actor hinting that Turen was the driving force behind the show’s momentum. Levinson’s been known to rewrite on the fly and did away with storyboards for Season 2, aiming for “instinctive decisions” on set, so it stands to reason that there may have needed to be someone who keeps things on track.
Meanwhile, industry insider Matt Belloni predicted on Monday’s episode of his podcast, The Town, that some form of a third season “will happen” despite the fact that Levinson is “kind of a disaster” coming off of HBO’s short-lived and widely panned The Idol. But instead of a standard eight-episode run, Belloni thinks the series will either wrap up with a two-hour movie or perhaps a “very truncated” three- or four-episode final season.
In any case, despite the chaos, actors and fans are still eagerly awaiting the next season, even though HBO has been clear that it’s going to be a while. “Because I’m an actor I will always be excited about any acting work so yes I am looking forward to returning,” the unnamed actor said. “I just don’t think it will happen.”
