Zendaya's Euphoria Season 3 Comments Spark Concern

by Ellen DurneyBuzzFeedBuzzFeed StaffHi, I’m Ellen!

We’re less than a month away from the highly anticipated third season of HBO’s Euphoria. Although you’d be forgiven for not knowing that, because hardly anyone is talking about it — not even the stars of the show.

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To quickly refresh your mind, the first season of Euphoria premiered in Summer 2019 to rave reviews and later earned Zendaya her first Emmy for her portrayal of Rue Bennett, a teenager recovering from drug addiction.

Eddy Chen/HBO

The second season premiered in 2022 and, despite all the hype, wasn’t as well-received by critics. But the viewing figures were still incredibly high, and Zendaya nabbed another Emmy for her performance, too.

Eddy Chen/HBO

The third season was confirmed in early 2022 while Season 2 was still airing, and in the four years since, there have been major doubts as to whether it’d even happen due to extensive reports of behind-the-scenes drama — including a rumored rift between Zendaya and the show’s creator, Sam Levinson.

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For context, Zendaya was not only the star of Euphoria but also an executive producer. She and Sam were very close, notably collaborating on the 2021 Netflix indie movie Malcolm & Marie. However, a 2024 exposé by the Hollywood Reporter claimed that their relationship began to fall apart when Sam got caught up in his other HBO show, The Idol.

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As you may remember, The Idol was pretty much a complete disaster. It aired in June 2023 to widespread criticism and was canceled after only one season. Around this time, Rolling Stone published an exposé on Sam’s allegedly chaotic creative process during the making of the show, alleging that it’d gone “disgustingly, disturbingly off the rails.”

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According to the Hollywood Reporter, it was the Idol scandal that sparked a rift between Zendaya and Sam, with her reportedly feeling uneasy about how her “pristine” reputation could be tarnished by her association with him. “They went from being so close, and they couldn’t fix it,” a source claimed.

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Well, somewhere down the line, Z and Sam were clearly able to put their alleged “creative issues” aside in order to get to work on the long-awaited third season of Euphoria, which began shooting in 2025 after years of delays.

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The Season 3 trailer finally dropped in January this year, giving fans their first look at the familiar characters after a five-year time jump in the story. You can watch it here.

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What’s interesting, though, is that Euphoria’s all-star cast has been suspiciously quiet and unenthusiastic about the show’s return. In a Variety interview in December, Jacob Elordi expressed concerns that it wouldn’t be very “good,” and Zendaya has yet to even acknowledge Season 3 on social media, which is very unusual for her, particularly compared to how she promoted the first two seasons of the show.

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It's also worth noting that, back in January, fans noticed Zendaya's name was missing from the list of executive producers for Euphoria Season 3 on the Warner Bros. Discovery website. She has not publicly commented on this. (And yes, that's the Drake you think it is.)

Warner Bros. Discovery / HBO / Via press.wbd.com

Suffice to say, all this isn’t giving people the highest hopes for what Season 3 may bring. And with only a few weeks to wait, Zendaya gave some rare comments about Euphoria on the red carpet for her new movie, The Drama.

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Chatting with Variety, Zendaya was asked what fans should “expect” from the new series, prompting her to reveal that she’s actually only “seen a little bit” of the final cut. “Um, there’s a— Oh gosh. It was a whirlwind,” she said, discussing last year’s frantic shoot. “I did what I usually do in eight months in, like, four months, so…it was like trying to get eight episodes in at once.”

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“It just flew by me, but, yeah, I'm excited,” she concluded. “I hope it turns out beautifully.”

Variety / @varietymagazine / Via tiktok.com

Granted that she said she’s not watched much of the series, those comments didn’t really tell us all that much — and it’s making people a little nervous. One Reddit user observed that she's “talking like she guest-starred” in the show, while someone else speculated that it “feels like folks are washing their hands of this show in the most polite way possible.”

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“This is not giving good vibes,” wrote someone else, while another user even speculated that Z seems “really checked out” of the show.

Zendaya’s latest interview comes less than a week after Labrinth, who composed the score for Seasons 1 and 2 of Euphoria, posted and deleted a cryptic Instagram statement blasting the TV series.

Gregg Deguire