Then, Levinson dropped probably the biggest plot point yet: “I feel strongly this is our best season yet… I will say that Cassie and Nate do, in fact, get married. I’m confirming it. And I promise that it will be an unforgettable night.”
Such a substantial gap between the seasons (Season 2 concluded in February 2022) was always going to present some major life shifts for this cast of characters. It was reported that when, in 2023, Levinson proposed his vision for the third season to executives, there was a time jump of five years. Rewrites were necessary, however, because, according to sources, Angus Cloud’s Fez “figured heavily into the initial concept for the season.”
But when revised scripts were submitted in late 2023 and early 2024, executives were apparently not convinced. Per Variety, “There was a new arc for Zendaya’s Rue, whose character in Levinson’s first pass had been relegated to the background in a somewhat surprising storyline about her working as a private detective, which HBO had immediately vetoed. Among many other ideas for the rewrites, Zendaya had pitched an idea in which Rue, who is now sober as a twentysomething young woman, would be a pregnancy surrogate. But insiders say the new scripts simply didn’t feel like the show tonally.”
How those conflicting concepts were ultimately reconciled, we still don’t know for sure—but it was Zendaya who first confirmed the time skip last year. “I don’t quite know exactly what the season is going to look like, but I do know that the time jump is happening and I know it’s important because there’s only so much high school drama you can deal with,” she told The Awardist.
Who is joining Euphoria for its third season?
On October 17, Variety reported that a fleet of stars had joined the series, among them Trisha Paytas, Natasha Lyonne, Danielle Deadwyler, and Eli Roth.
Besides Paytas, Lyonne, Deadwyler, and Roth, other new additions to Euphoria’s cast include Bella Podaras, Bill Bodner, Cailyn Rice, Colleen Camp, Gideon Adlon, Hemky Madera, Homer Gere, Jack Topalian, Jessica Blair Herman, Kwame Patterson, Madison Thompson, Matthew Willig, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Sam Trammell. As previously reported, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Toby Wallace, Sharon Stone, Rosalía, Marshawn Lynch, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Kadeem Hardison, Priscilla Delgado, James Landry Hébert, Anna Van Patten, and Asante Blackk have also joined the show for Season 3.
And who from the original cast will return?
Well, not everyone. Back in August 2022, Barbie Ferreira announced that she would not reprise her role as Kat in the show’s third installment. “After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character, Kat, I’m having to say a very teary-eyed goodbye,” she wrote in an Instagram Story. “I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did, and that [it] 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.”
