Euphoria Season 3: What We Know So Far

Zendaya in Euphoria.
(Image credit: HBO)

Euphoria Season 3 is confirmed, but don’t expect it to be on any 2025 TV premiere schedule. The season was confirmed back in 2022 when Season 2 ended, but for a while, there were barely any updates, and rumors began to circulate about whether or not Season 3 was even happening.

But, thanks to recent updates, we know now it is, which we’ll get into down below. Here is what we know so far.

What Is The Euphoria Season 3 Premiere Date?

Sydney Sweeney in Euphoria

(Image credit: HBO)

Don’t get excited, there’s no set premiere date, but we do have some kind of idea. According to Deadline in November 2024, they said that HBO is eyeing a 2026 premiere. This makes sense as filming is set to begin soon, which we’ll get into in a bit.

The Euphoria Season 3 Cast

Jules and Rue in Euphoria.

(Image credit: HBO)

Most of the main cast of Euphoria will be back according to a report from Variety in July 2024. This includes:

Zendaya as Ruby "Rue" Bennett

Zendaya will return as Rue, the main character of Euphoria. She has won two Emmy Awards for her portrayal of the young woman. Zendaya has also appeared in several other movies like the Dune franchise, Challengers, and more.

Eric Dane as Cal Jacobs

Also returning in Season 3 is Eric Dane as Cal Jacobs, who in an interview with Variety, said that he hopes Season 3 will bring some sort of “redemption” for his character:

There’s gonna be redemption. I mean, that’s the trajectory he’s on. I can’t imagine Cal’s life from solitary confinement. It’s tough to work Cal into the storyline when he’s behind bars.

Alexa Demie as Madeleine "Maddy" Perez

Alexa Demie will return as Maddy for Euphoria, the ex-best friend of Cassie Howard and Nate’s ex-girlfriend. She made a cameo appearance in The Idol, and appeared in other movies like Mainstream and Waves.

Jacob Elordi as Nathaniel "Nate" Jacobs,

Jacob Elordi will return as Nate Jacobs, the star athlete who has serious anger issues and uses them to combat his own mental health problems. Elordi has appeared in several films lately, including Priscilla, the Saltburn, He Went That Way, and more. He’s set to appear in several new movies.

Hunter Schafer as Jules Vaughn

Hunter Schafer will return as Jules, Rue’s ex-lover. Schafer appeared in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, as well as the Neon horror film, Cuckoo

Sydney Sweeney as Cassandra "Cassie" Howard

Sydney Sweeney will return as Cassie Howard, the younger sister of Lexi. Sweeney has recently appeared in Madame Web and starred in both Anyone But You and Immaculate.

There are several other actors from the Euphoria cast that are expected to return as well. These include:

Colman Domingo as Ali Muhammed

Colman Domingo will return for his Emmy Award-winning role as Ali in Euphoria Season 3. Domingo was recently nominated at the 2024 Academy Awards for Best Actor for his role in Rustin.

Austin Abrams as Ethan Daley

Austin Abrams is expected to return as Ethan in Euphoria Season 3. Abrams has since appeared in movies like Do Revenge, The Starling Girl and The Line.

Maude Apatow as Alexis "Lexi" Howard

Maude Apatow is expected to return as Lexi in Season 3 of Euphoria. The actress has appeared in movies like The King of Staten Island and held a voice role in the series, Pantheon.

Nika King as Leslie Bennett

Nika King is expected to return as Leslie Bennett, Rue’s mother. She has appeared in films such as 65 and Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History.

With such a great cast, it’ll be awesome to see most of them back, hopefully for a great third season, despite some notable cast members missing.

Euphoria Cast Members That Will Not Be Back

Barbie Ferreira in Euphoria.

(Image credit: HBO)

A possible cast member that won’t return is Dominic Fike (who played Elliot), who has openly said in an interview with Variety in January 2024 that he’s ‘unsure’ if he would return for Season 3, saying he didn’t “really talk” to the people at the show anymore.

One of the cast members that we will not be seeing in Season 3 of Euphoria is Barbie Ferreira as Kat. According to her Instagram story (via The Hollywood Reporter) the actress decided to leave the show, saying that she hoped fans could see “themselves” in the character like she did:

I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did, and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character she is today. I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys could feel it. Love you Katherine Hernandez.

Later on, however, Ferreira revealed in an interview with Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, that the real reason she left the series was because she felt that there was “nowhere” for Kat to go next in the season:

I don’t think there was a place for her to go. I mean, I think that there were places you could go. I just don’t think it would have fit into the show. I don’t know if it was gonna 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.

We also know from a red carpet interview with Rotten Tomatoes in November 2024 that Storm Reid, who played Rue’s little sister, will not be back for Season 3 of Euphoria, but that there’s no hard feelings and that she can’t wait to see what the cast has in store:

I’m very excited for Season 3. Unfortunately, Gia’s not returning to the third season, but I am so so indebted to the cast and the crew of that show, to HBO. ‘Euphoria’s’ a really special thing and I’m so glad that that’s a part of my legacy and that I was a part of such a cultural phenomenon … I can’t wait to see what Season 3 has in store.

Unfortunately, Angus Cloud tragically passed in 2023, so Fez will not be back unless he is recast, but I highly doubt that will occur.

What Is Euphoria Season 3 About?

Maddy's eyeliner look from Euphoria

(Image credit: HBO)

There is basically nothing out there when it comes to Euphoria Season 3 and what it could be about. But there are plenty of hints that have been passed around:

Expect A Time Jump Between Seasons

In an April 2023 interview with Vogue that one of the costume designers, Heidi Bivens, gave, she confirmed that she will do her best to make the outfits for the third season just as great, hinting that there have been talks of a “five-year” time jump:

I’ll do everything I can to make the third season of the show successful. I’m really excited to read the scripts. There is talk of it being approximately five years in the future, and that they’re not in high school anymore. Dorothy’s not in Kansas anymore. I mean, it might be a total trip. Who can say? But knowing Sam’s brain, it’s gonna be exciting.

This was further confirmed by an exclusive from The Wrap in March 2024 that the reason for the delay was that Levinson wished to move the story from high school to adulthood, and that HBO was giving him the time to do so and figure out the proper scripts. The Chief of HBO, Casey Bloys, even said in a statement to Deadline in November 2024 that fans should expect a time-jump.

I mean, the actors are getting older, so it would make sense to lean a bit away from high school. Zendaya is even a fan of it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in August 2022, Zendaya revealed that they hope that Season 3 digs into Rue’s life after high school, as well as the rest of the characters and what they might be going through after graduating:

I want to see what Rue looks like in her sobriety journey, how chaotic that might look. But also with all the characters, in the sense where they’re trying to figure out what to do with their lives when high school is over and what kind of people they want to be.

If the show does somehow jump forward five years in some way, this would be the perfect way to do this kind of story, and I am down for it. But at this point, everything is up in the air.

Colman Domingo Says Sam Levinson Is Going To Take “Big Swings” With The Story In Season 3

Information on the story is very limited, but Colman Domingo believes that Levinson is taking some “big swings” with the upcoming third season of Euphoria. Domingo, who plays Ali, relayed in an interview with Deadline in September 2022 that Levinson wants to go “deeper” with these characters and that Season 3 is the best way to do that:

It’s an organism and [Levinson] wants to keep shifting it in many ways and I think he’s going to take some really big swings actually with Season 3. He’s someone who, once there’s an expectation of the show, he wants to smash that expectation because he truly is a consummate artist, and he wants to make sure he’s telling some really compelling storytelling. And just because we had some successes before with this season, he said, ‘Let’s not rely on that. Let’s move forward. I’m going to go deeper with these characters. I’m going to really peel away the layers of them and just get to the human heart.’

I feel like Season 2 of the show did explore other characters in great ways – and some others (like Kat) were sort of left out to dry. But, we’ll see where Season 3 takes us.

Season 3 Will Be Eight Episodes

Also confirmed from Bloys in that Deadline article above is that Season 3 of Euphoria will be eight episodes, which is the same amount as the second season, so at least we’re not losing anymore episodes.

Zendaya Could Potentially Direct An Episode Of Season 3

Zendaya as Rue on Euphoria

(Image credit: HBO Entertainment)

Another fun little tidbit that could be something we know is that Zendaya might actually get to direct an episode of Season 3. In an interview with Vogue Italia in June 2022, she was asked about the possibility of directing an episode of Euphoria, and the star revealed that she was supposed to direct Episode 6 of Season 2, but she just didn’t have the time.

It's funny, I was actually supposed to direct Episode6 [of Season 2] but then I had to act in it. I didn't have enough time, so, unfortunately, I wasn't able to this time around. I wanted to have enough time to do it the right way. So, next season, probably.

I would be so down to watch a Zendaya-directed episode, and I have a feeling it would be awesome.

Filming Will Begin In January 2025

Nika King, Zendaya HBO Euphoria Season 2 - Episode 7

(Image credit: Eddy Chen/HBO)

Filming is finally set to begin in January 2025, according to that Deadline article from November 2024 that we linked out to above. Bloys confirmed that the rumors of the show ending and not filming are false and that they are set to continue the story in January 2025:

Somebody said something online and then this whole thing started. We are shooting the season, I have read the scripts, we’re happy, we’re moving ahead. I know the show gets a lot of attention now because it has created some genuine movie stars, and they have various projects that they’re working on. But we are shooting this season, so nothing has changed.

Sydney Sweeney did an interview with GQ in March 2024 where she said filming was supposed to begin soon. However, it came out not more than a week later that filming was delayed, as stated above by the Deadline article in March 2024, and that the actors were encouraged to take on other projects. Then the Variety article in March 2024 confirmed that filming was officially put on hold until the end of 2024. Thankfully, 2025 will be the year we see them film again.

Colman Domingo even gave a timeline on how long filming might take in an interview with Deadline in November 2024, saying that he expected to film his new film in the third quarter of 2025, meaning Season 3 will presumably take about six months to film.

While we’re not going to be getting any Season 3 of Euphoria any time soon, we can at least watch the other two seasons. Until then, I guess I’ll just try to be patient. There are still so many questions that need to be answered.

Alexandra Ramos
Content Producer

A self-proclaimed nerd and lover of Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, Alexandra Ramos is a Content Producer at CinemaBlend. She first started off working in December 2020 as a Freelance Writer after graduating from the Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Journalism and a minor in English. She primarily works in features for movies, TV, and sometimes video games. (Please don't debate her on The Last of Us 2, it was amazing!) She is also the main person who runs both our daily newsletter, The CinemaBlend Daily, and our ReelBlend newsletter.