The long-awaited season three of HBO’s drama series Euphoria officially hit streaming on April 12th with weekly releases every Sunday at 9 pm EST. Euphoria has been known for its messy release schedule since the three-year gap between season one and two, and now the four-year gap between season two and three, but it’s something viewers can’t help but crawl back to when there are finally concrete plans in the works.
The season takes place five years post high school, following most of the main cast’s adult plotlines. The story opens with Rue (Zendaya) working as a drug mule to pay off her debt to Laurie (Martha Kelly), a drug lord and trafficker. Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) and Nate (Jacob Elordi) are arguing about floral arrangements for their wedding and whether Cassie is allowed to create an OnlyFans account to pay for said floral arrangements… Lexi (Maude Apatow) is employed as an assistant to a TV showrunner, similar to Maddy (Alexa Demie), who is managing big stars in Hollywood. Lastly, Rue’s original love interest, Jules (Hunter Schafer), has been lacking responsibility and navigating a darker life as a high-end sugar baby after her time at art school. One thing Euphoria is also known for is its extensive cast that delves deep into its complex characters, so, where is everyone else?
Barbie Ferreira, who played one of Maddy and Cassie’s best friends, Kat, will not be appearing in season three. Rumors began running rampant months ago that she had long standing beef with the show’s creator, Sam Levinson, and that’s why she wouldn’t be returning as Kat. Although Ferreira disproved these theories, it doesn’t seem entirely inaccurate given how her storyline ended and how her character fit into the overall story. Kat is portrayed as a pretty typical high school girl who struggles with her body image. She becomes a cam girl by selling personalized sexual content to older men on the internet as a form of rebellion and a way to reclaim power in her identity. In season two, she gets into a relationship with kind and stable Ethan (Austin Abrams), but eventually, she breaks up with him because of the inner hatred she has towards herself. When they break up, she can’t even give Ethan the honesty he deserves and fakes a brain disorder so she doesn’t have to own up to the fact she can’t accept genuine love. After this, she’s pretty much sidelined for the rest of the season, and Kat falls flat. Ferreira stated that she and Levinson couldn’t land on anything solid to continue Kat’s story, and she didn’t want to continue to characterize the “fat best friend” cliché, especially considering the lack of a storyline Levinson wrote for her in season two. Many thought that Levinson didn’t want Ferreira back on set, but she clarified that it was a mutual decision between her and production. Still sounds a bit fishy to me.
In addition to Ferreira’s fallout, Austin Abrams will not be returning as Ethan either. Even if Ferreira did want to continue Kat’s story, Ethan would have probably been written off anyway due to the breakup. He was just there to support her arc, but given that didn’t happen in the way viewers hoped, he didn’t serve much of a purpose, which is a shame because he was a beloved character who offered comic relief and refreshment in light of the heavier themes that lead the show. Personally, I would have enjoyed seeing him and Kat reconnect in a potential season four (releasing in 2065 probably) after Kat learns how to love herself properly. Unfortunately, Kat was done dirty, especially with the audience being majority young women. Her representation and exploration of self-love is needed in today’s age of blonde bimbo Barbies flooding our feeds. The way Levinson handled her character without any care at all by depicting her as a terrible, selfish friend and person is upsetting.
One other major supporting actor who will not be making an appearance is Storm Reid, who plays Rue’s sister, Gia. Reid leaving saddened me the most. Rue’s family grounds her, and aside from Lexi, her mom and sister are the only people who incentivize Rue to stay clean. In episode two of season three, we see a flashback scene of Rue calling her mom, who doesn’t answer, begging her to let her come home. It’s inferred that Leslie and Gia are done with Rue’s antics after she has to flee to Mexico under Laurie’s orders, and they’ve broken contact with her because of the lack of honesty and trust. Although Nika King, who plays Rue’s mom, Leslie, is returning for the third season, it’s unclear how much screen time she will get. Storm Reid expressed feelings about the multiple production delays and her schedule no longer allotting for Euphoria, given that she is graduating soon from the University of Southern California. Gia is there to remind Rue that she needs to be mindful of the influence she has on her little sister because she looks up to her. Without her, it makes me nervous to see what’s in store for her, Rue’s Californian sobriety.
It goes without saying that Rue’s soft hearted drug dealer and Lexi’s love interest Fezco (Angus Cloud) will not be coming back. Cloud passed away in July of 2023 from an overdose after struggling with the recent death of his father. Euphoria wrote Fez off by giving him a life sentence in prison after the drug bust at the end of season two. Eric Dane, who plays Cal Jacobs, Nate’s father, also recently passed away in February of 2026 after a long battle with ALS. The actor known for his role as McSteamy in Grey’s Anatomy did make a posthumous appearance in episode two of season three, however it was heartbreakingly obvious how much his speech and motor functions had already diminished during filming. Dane told Variety that he was ecstatic to come back to the set to wrap up Cal’s arc.
I would argue the most recognizable thing about Euphoria is its music. Singer-songwriter and composer Labrinth has been writing the music for the show since the beginning, known for his electronic, synth-pop notes. However, right before the release, Labrinth posted a lot of cryptic statements to his Instagram page, many of which were deleted. The deleted post from March 12th that garnered lots of attention focused on a black screen with text that read:
“IM DONE WITH THIS INDUSTRY
F**K COLUMBIA
DOUBLE F**K EUPHORIA
IM OUT
THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT X”
It’s unclear what really happened between Labrinth and HBO. Sam Levinson? Columbia Records? But it was clearly nothing good. He cites mistreatment and a lack of control in the industry, but his music is what has been missing from Euphoria. One of the sole reasons the vibe of the first two seasons is not present at all is because of Labrinth’s sound, which is quite a shame.
Now, it’s kind of insane to have almost half of your cast walk out, and there have been so many speculations over the years about Sam Levinson’s ability to run a set. It’s impossible to deny that he is the common denominator in this mess. What I find to be the most interesting is Petra Collins’ accusation that Levinson used her art to create Euphoria without giving her credit. Collins is a fairly famous artist in photography and directing. She’s photographed Charli XCX and Nicole Kidman, as well as directed many of Olivia Rodrigo’s music videos.
Collins claimed on Punkt that Levinson told her he was “inspired by” her photos, specifically her 2016 photo exhibition that features teenage girls crying tears of glitter under neon colored lights, and he was interested in her directing Euphoria. She created storylines and a cast to pitch, and at the last minute, HBO dropped Collins because she was “too young”. Levinson then continued on with the show with her chosen aesthetic. It seems this happens a lot in the industry, where women are undermined, taken advantage of, and ultimately ripped off. However, “a source close to Levinson” told The Daily Beast that Levinson offered to throw Collins name in the accumulation of directors being considered for the first episode, and nothing was promised. Even if he did promise, he wouldn’t have had any say because it was a network decision.
The suspiciousness of Sam Levinson doesn’t stop there. There are three different accounts of Euphoria women stating they didn’t think nudity was needed for a scene, and Levinson was quick to agree and let them be clothed. Sydney Sweeney recalled a moment in an interview with The Independent where Cassie was supposed to be shirtless, and she stated that she didn’t think it was really necessary, saying, “When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.” Chloe Cherry, who plays Faye, also noted to The Daily Beast that Levinson expected her to be completely nude on her first day of filming. She was shooting a scene with her on-screen boyfriend, Custer (Tyler Chase), and he told Levinson it was “a lot” and that they shouldn’t do it. Again, Levinson listened. Likewise, Minka Kelly, who guest starred as Samantha in season two, was also expected to be fully naked on her first day on set. In the scene they were filming, Kelly told Vanity Fair that Maddy unzips Samantha’s dress, and Levinson “thought it would be more interesting” if her dress fell to the ground. Kelly disagreed and told him since it was her first day, she didn’t feel comfortable doing that, and he didn’t hesitate at all to take back his thought.
All of this sounds nice of Levinson. It paints him in this caring, receptive light. However, why doesn’t he actually have any reasons why these girls need to be naked? There should be an artistic purpose for any nude scene in any project, in my opinion, so why is Levinson so quick to back down when someone questions him? It seems like he’s trying to see what he can get away with before the actors deem it’s too much. It makes me wonder what other scenes he could’ve done without if someone had just asked him.
The production delays mentioned earlier were largely tied to Sam Levinson’s creative process. Reports from cast and crew suggest that Levinson repeatedly rewrote scripts, sometimes discarding entire arcs mid-development, which caused filming to be pushed back again and again. While revision is normal in television, the frequency of these changes created an unstable working environment. Actors were left in limbo for months to years, unsure of when production would resume or whether their characters would even remain relevant in the evolving storyline.
As a result, actors like Ferreira, Abrams, and Reid began stepping away from the project out of practicality. It’s hard to stay loyal to a show that can’t offer a clear timeline, especially when your character’s future is constantly being rewritten. This revolving door of cast members has undeniably impacted the coherence of the series, causing season three to not really feel like a continuation of our characters. At this point, they’re just grasping at straws.
At its core, Euphoria still holds onto the raw emotional intensity that calls viewers back, but the show seems to have lost a sense of direction. Whether Euphoria can recover from this remains uncertain, but it is clear that all the drama behind the camera is starting to overshadow the story being told on it.