From One Tree Hill to Riverdale and Gossip Girl, the high school teen drama has been a cornerstone of the American television landscape for decades. But across the long, melodramatic history of the teen drama genre, few shows have been as controversial and genuinely influential as Euphoria.
Written and created by Sam Levinson (a creator just as hotly debated as the series itself), HBO’s dark, boundary-pushing high school odyssey presents heavy subject matter, ambitious aesthetics, and powerful performances. Over its two seasons, the series has gained an ardent fan base, 9 Emmys, and viewership figures rivaled (at the time) only by Game of Thrones.
While Euphoria may be one of HBO’s glitteriest, most discourse-generating shows, it’s also one plagued by production troubles. Though originally scheduled for a 2024 release date, the show’s hotly anticipated third season has once again paused production, having first been delayed by the fall 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
But Euphoria‘s behind-the-scenes troubles date back further than the strike. In August of 2022, series regular Barbie Ferreira (Kat Hernandez) announced via Instagram that she wouldn’t be returning for season three.
Certainly, Ferreira’s departure was a blow for fans, but it also wasn’t an entirely unexpected one—over the course of Euphoria season two, many viewers voiced their frustrations with the show’s treatment of and storylines (or lack thereof) for Kat. While Rue (Zendaya), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), and Maddy (Alexa Demie) all had major dramatic arcs over the course of the second season (culminating in a memorable play put on by Lexi), Kat’s presence in season two is almost entirely tertiary and hinged around a lackluster plot about her inability to navigate her new relationship with the Uber-sweet Ethan (Austin Abrams).
Following her Instagram story announcement, Ferrera explained on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast why she didn’t want to return for a third season of Euphoria:
“I think my character, who I love so dearly, I don’t think there was a place for her to go. I think there were places she could have gone. I just don’t think it would have fit into the show. 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.”
With one of their four main characters leaving the series for good, Euphoria‘s hypothetical third season took another devastating blow with the death of Angus Cloud, the breakout star who played Fez, Rue’s kindhearted drug dealer. Cloud’s unexpected passing meant that Euphoria had not only lost another major character, but a beloved member of the cast.
By the time the SAG-AFTRA strike ended in November and Euphoria was hypothetically able to resume filming, the series was already down two characters—but while stars like Zendaya, Sweeney, and Demie all agreed to return, the problem then became scheduling. Though she was certainly already a familiar face thanks to her time on the Disney Channel and projects like The Greatest Showman and the Spider-Man films, Euphoria launched Zendaya intro true megastardom, nabbing her an Emmy in the process.
While having a star of Zendaya’s caliber is an undeniable draw for viewers (and a huge reason why Rue is such an effective character), the curse of having such in-demand talent on the roster is that there are always bigger, more exciting projects on the horizon. Between blockbusters like Dune and erotic dramas like Challengers, her resume is chock full of upcoming projects—and she’s not the only one.
Sydney Sweeney is having arguably just as excellent of a year as Zendaya—between Anyone But You, Madame Web, and Immaculate, Sweeney has three major titles all under her belt within a year, with more on the horizon. When you’re getting offers for films like Dune or being asked to join the Spider-Man franchise, it’s no wonder why Euphoria‘s stars may not be interested in prioritizing a third season of playing the same high school-bound teenagers.
Are there plot elements that need wrapping up? Definitely. Rue’s optimistic season two ending felt a little too neat-and-tidy for a series that’s bold enough to kill off a character as young as Ashtray, and the Maddy/Cassie relationship is still very much in shambles. And while season two wasn’t narratively as effective as the first installment, the raw emotionality it pulls from the characters and the big swings it takes in doing so are worth celebrating.
For Euphoria to forge ahead with a third season would not only undercut the effectiveness of the risky season two finale, but it would also force a crop of remarkable young actors to lose some of the momentum their careers are currently picking up to shoot a series that takes a month to film a single episode.
In both a literal and a meta sense, the cast of Euphoria has outgrown the show, and that’s not a bad thing. Part of what made season one so spectacular were its dreamy, introspective monologues from Rue: and just as her drug-induced euphoria can’t last forever, neither can a series about young people learning to grow. Setting aside the fact that Demie is 33 playing an 18 year old, overstaying its welcome by dragging out a third season would be antithetical to the ephemeral nature of Euphoria as a series. Some things just aren’t meant to last.
(featured image: HBO)
