Staying up late on what was dubbed “Euphoria Sundays” to watch the show, immediately opening social media, and talking to my friends about the latest episode was the highlight of my sophomore year of high school. As much as I hate to be one of those people, it truly was an experience that you just had to be there for.
However, as a sophomore in college, I now find that my feelings towards Euphoria are significantly different from what they once were. Like everyone else, I couldn’t wait for another season to come. After four years of fans left waiting, it was recently announced that the first episode of season three is set to premiere on April 12. However, in light of all the new and old controversy surrounding the show, I find my expectations beginning to dwindle as the weeks leading up to the release of the first episode go by.
From accusations of Sam Levinson stealing the aesthetic of Euphoria and Barbie Ferreira exiting the show to Labrinth’s recent Instagram post, I’m starting to think that Euphoria has been long overdue for an ending. If one thing is for certain, it’s that the drama happening off-screen is just as chaotic as what’s happening on-screen.
One of the biggest testaments to Euphoria’s problematic history surfaced in an interview with photographer, director, and artist Petra Collins, who has done notable work for Euphoria, which was left uncredited. While speaking with PUNKT, a Hungarian photography magazine, Collins opened up about her experience working with Sam Levinson and HBO on the show’s pre-production.
Collins explained that she moved to Los Angeles to work on Euphoria after Sam Levinson reached out to her agency to ask if she would direct a show he wrote based on some of her photos. Collins accepted and began working on the show, which she claims she “built a whole world” for.
Supposedly, she was the casting director as well, which seems very likely given that Hunter Schafer and Barbie Ferreira were long-time muses of Collins, having appeared numerous times in her early photography work. Almost all the actors of the show have reached huge levels of stardom since being cast, which has certainly benefited Euphoria and brought in a large viewership.
After five months of hard work, Collins was alerted at the last minute by HBO that they would not be hiring her for the show after all. Things like this tend to happen, often ending with the project being scrapped and never being picked up by another company, so Collins moved on. However, a year later, Collins was in shock after stepping outside her apartment and seeing a promotional billboard for Euphoria that she said was an exact copy of her work.
Thievery like this has reportedly happened to Collins before, but not enough to lead her to change the entire aesthetic and vision of her work as Euphoria did. While the statement she gave to PUNKT about this was swiftly deleted from the article, it is not at all complicated to find screenshots of it online, as well as examples of Collins’ work that back up nearly everything she claimed.
While Collins’ forcible exit from Euphoria went practically unnoticed before being exposed by Collins herself, Barbie Ferreira’s willing departure did not. Ferreira, who played Kat in seasons one and two of Euphoria, posted on her Instagram story in August 2022 that she would not be returning for season three. This was later clarified on the podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard as a mutual decision in 2023.
Ferreira framed this choice as inevitable, with there being no place for her character to go.“I think there were places she could have gone. I just don’t think it would have fit into the show,” Ferreira said. “I don’t know if it was going to do her justice, and I think both parties knew that I really wanted to be able to not be the fat best friend. I don’t want to play that, and I think they didn’t want that either.”
This indecisiveness and uncertainty about how to approach Kat’s storyline could have stemmed from Sam Levinson’s, the creator and writer of Euphoria, inability to write about things he doesn’t relate to. As stated by Ferreira, “I don’t think he [Levinson] relates to Kat. I like Kat, so I get to go on my own path…” However, there was also large speculation that the decline in Kat’s relevance to season two’s plot was because of the rumored conflict between Ferreira and Levinson.
Ferreira not only disputed these claims—stating that she never walked off set during the filming of season two and is not a victim of the show—but HBO also denied the existence of a toxic environment and messy behind-the-scenes drama during Euphoria’s production in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. Now, the company is again under fire for the speculated mistreatment of the Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and composer, Labrinth.
In a now-deleted post of a screenshot of an Apple note, Labrinth—who is the genius behind Euphoria’s season one and two original scores, which include popular songs such as “All For Us,” “Forever,” and “Still Don’t Know My Name”—stated that he’s done with the industry. He also cursed out Columbia and Euphoria before writing, “I’M OUT. THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT X.”
Shortly following this, Labrinth uploaded another post on March 17, calling out the industry for exploiting and manipulating interactions with young aspiring artists who are discarded “as soon as a bigger opportunity arrives.” While this post seems to be alluding to Euphoria’s decision to add Hans Zimmer as a composer for season three’s score that was announced in July 2025, Labrinth was initially very excited about the collaboration and even called Zimmer one of his “heroes in film score.”
Beyond speculation, there has been no confirmation from Labrinth or his representatives on what sparked these equally passionate and cryptic posts. Could it be that Labrinth’s work was sidelined for Zimmer’s, who is a much bigger name compared to Labrinth, despite dedicating the last seven years of his career to Euphoria? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.
As if Euphoria hasn’t received enough bad press already, the reveal of season three’s poster has only sparked more. Almost immediately after it was posted on Instagram on March 24, fans began pointing out similarities between the poster for Euphoria and those for blockbuster films, such as Marvel. This, along with the absence of Collins’ aesthetic from the season three trailer, has signaled an obvious shift from the teenage drama genre to a more serious young adult show.
However, judging from social media comments and what I have seen of the season three trailer, I’m not sure that this will work in HBO and Levinson’s favor. Many viewers, including myself, have grown to love the original aesthetic, character arcs, and storylines that made up seasons one and two of Euphoria. Now, with that all gone, it seems very likely that this will only bring a rise to the hot water Euphoria finds itself in.
That said, I do not doubt that the acting and cinematography for season three of Euphoria will be just as amazing as it was in the last two. The real question is, will it be enough to redeem Euphoria and overshadow all the extreme drama and accusations now associated with it?