For a second there, it looked like Euphoria’s third season might never happen. Between WGA and SAG strikes, reported disagreements about creator Sam Levinson’s scripts for the season (first with Zendaya and then with HBO), and the very crowded schedules of the show’s now A-list cast, it seemed like an impossible task. As Hunter Schafer put it on Call Her Daddy last August, “I have no fucking idea what’s going on.”
Well, they seem to have figured it out. The third and final season of the show began production back in February, and since then we’ve been getting a slow trickle of information about what’s to come for America’s favorite sad/sexy/drug-addled teenagers. For one thing, there will be a time jump, and everyone involved will finally be adults. On Friday, Deadline reported that a lot of new faces were joining the cast, several of which might make you go, “Oh, what? Them? Really?”
Natasha Lyonne and Danielle Deadwyler have come onboard, which makes perfect sense — those are two talented actresses joining a prestige HBO drama. After that, things start to get kooky. Eli Roth is part of the new crew, presumably playing a clean-cut gentleman without a hint of sleaze. In the biggest curveball, YouTube legend Trisha Paytas has joined the cast as well. This will be Paytas’s first big dramatic role — although she recently joined the cast of Beetlejuice on Broadway, she is mostly known for saying goofy stuff on her podcast and giving her children increasingly wacky names. Speaking of names, Deadline also reported that Euphoria has cast a fresh crop of celebrity kids: Pamela Adlon’s daughter Gideon Adlon, and Richard Gere’s son, Homer Gere, will both be in the season. Sure, why not!
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All of these actors are joining what was already a supersize cast. In addition to returning regulars like Zendaya, Schafer, Sydney Sweeney, and Jacob Elordi, a bunch of other new cast members were announced earlier this year. So, Paytas might be sharing scenes with the likes of Rosalía, Sharon Stone, and Marshawn Lynch. As if things weren’t crowded enough, Hans Zimmer is doing the music this season.
With all of these people in the mix for eight episodes only of television, you have to wonder if it’s even possible for it to be good. According to Colman Domingo — did you forget that he is also on this show? — it will all turn out great. “I think it’s some of the most gorgeous writing that Sam has ever done,” Domingo told Variety last year in December, although he admitted he hadn’t actually read the scripts but had only heard about them from Levinson. “From what he told me, it took my breath away.”
The way I see it, this will either be the best season of television ever or a total train wreck, the likes of which we have never really seen on TV before. How exciting! When can you expect it to come back? You cannot ask for too many details about this show. No one knows the answer to that question, but at some point next year, like white smoke coming out of the Vatican, you will start seeing memes of Sydney Sweeney sobbing all over your feed. That’s when you’ll know Euphoria has returned.
