Euphoria Season 3 Is Abandoning Its Current Direction
Euphoria Season 3 will jump ahead five years.
Euphoria’s second season ended with multiple characters on their way to jail, another likely dead, and an explosive fight among former friends vying for the attention of the high school’s resident bad boy, sending expectations for Season 3 sky high. For fans hoping to see the resolution to those stories, they might be disappointed by the latest news from the show’s costume designer, Heidi Bivens, revealed at the tail end of an interview with Vogue. The upcoming third season will bring a major change for Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, and the rest of the cast by abandoning the high school setting and jumping ahead five years.
Heidi Bivens, in promoting her latest book documenting the incredible fashion from the HBO series, just took a bomb to everyone’s expectations for the show’s return. Previously, showrunner Sam Levinson had promised major changes for Euphoria Season 3 and a renewed focus on life outside of school. What we didn’t know then was that he would accomplish this by eliminating the school setting altogether.
Part of the drastic change for Euphoria Season 3 could be practical; after all, the series started in 2019, four years ago now, and while the characters may not have aged, the cast certainly has. Most of them, including Zendaya and Maude Apatow, have been out of high school for over 10 years, and continuing to play students will start to resemble Steve Buscemi’s 30 Rock cameo or Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street. Outside of the natural passage of time, the other reason for a time jump is even easier to understand, as the high school setting may have run out of viable stories that can be told.
Barbie Ferreira stated one of the reasons she left Euphoria before Season 3 even started production was because the writers had no more ideas for her character. Zendaya‘s character Rue has already failed to maintain her sobriety, found love, relapsed, lost her love, and then became sober again. Without starting her character arc all over again, what could be done inside the walls of East Highland High School?
Finally, remove the expectations of a school setting, which includes classes and after-school programs, and now members of the cast are hopefully freed up to not appear in the background of so many shots or to have so much cross-over between storylines. Getting out of high school and into either college or beyond gives significantly more flexibility for jobs, relationships, and interpersonal dynamics. Will everyone still be in East Highland, or will Euphoria Season 3 take a cue from Glee and split time between multiple cities?
Jumping ahead five years raises countless questions about Euphoria Season 3, most of which won’t be answered until 2024 at the earliest. Due to Zendaya’s schedule getting shoved back thanks to Dune: Part Two, production on the third season won’t even begin for a few more months. The wait between the first two seasons seemed to take forever, even if it was only two and a half years, so what’s another two-year wait?
