My initial report about “Euphoria” season 3 being in turmoil kickstarted a week’s worth of headlines, and it hasn’t died down. Many questions about the HBO series remain.
A fresh new source tells me that they’d be very surprised if a third season ever happens. As far as they’re concerned, the show is done: “it’s about commitment and I just don’t see everyone being onboard, at the same time, after this last delay.”
Variety has a bombshell new report about the behind-the-scenes chaos. This show is in serious jeopardy of never returning.
Show creator Levinson had originally pitched to HBO, in winter 2023, a third season that jumps ahead five years, with “very compelling” arcs for Sydney Sweeney’s Cassie and Jacob Elordi’s Nate. However, Zendaya disliked the script so much that Levinson had to rewrite the entire thing from scratch.
But after Levinson finished his updates to the S3 scripts, HBO executives were not happy with the final result. They didn’t like Rue’s new arc, which had her character sidelined as a private detective. An assortment of other storylines didn’t make sense to them.
This sent Levinson back to the drawing board with a third revision and, according to Variety, insiders say the updated scripts still don’t tonally feel like “Euphoria,” which means Levinson is probably going to have to rewrite the whole thing again, for the fourth time.
Panic has ensued, with HBO reportedly having explored the idea of replacing Levinson as the creative head. There was also the idea of turning season 3 into a movie. All of this doesn’t even take into account the fact that, two years since the last season, some of the main actors (Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer) are no longer doing TV and have graduated into the movie business.
HBO wants a 6 month shoot for the third season. That’s demanding, considering it entails the actors to clear up their schedules and committing to half their work year for the show. It doesn’t help that, coming off “The Idol,” Levinson is on shaky ground with HBO. Who says the new scripts he’ll deliver to them will be any good?
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.