Euphoria’s third season is just around the corner, and the pressure is on for this groundbreaking teen drama to make up for its sister show The Idol’s catastrophic 2023 release. The likes of Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney will be back for Euphoria season 3 in the coming months, which is a promising sign for fans of the series.
The person with the most riding on this third season is creator Sam Levinson, who hasn’t been involved in writing or directing anything else since The Idol’s release. However, there is far less risk involved in making Euphoria season 3 than a brand new series, even if it does prove to be the show’s last final season.
There’s clearly a consensus that HBO messed up with The Idol, which turned mishandling sexual themes into a cause célèbre in truly spectacular fashion. But with a very different cast and production team, as well as a far more grounded premise, Euphoria is highly unlikely to make similar missteps during its third season.
What Went Wrong With The Idol
The Idol found itself embroiled in controversy months before it had even been released on HBO, after negative reports of the show’s production emerged, with many of its crew unhappy with the portrayal of female characters in the script. The original writer and director of the series was Amy Seimetz, but she left the production a year before its release.
At that point, Sam Levinson stepped in and made extensive rewrites, which allegedly caused many of the problems that anonymous insiders later complained about. The Idol then debuted to an unprecedented critical panning, with reviewers surmising that the show was a badly misjudged attempt at satire that frequently placed itself on the wrong side of the argument.
The Idol’s Failure Puts Pressure On Euphoria
The Rotten Tomatoes score amassed by The Idol set an unwanted record, as it became the worst-reviewed show in HBO history. Almost overnight, Sam Levinson’s entire reputation as a TV writer, director and producer was suddenly in jeopardy. He’s had no significant credits on any work of television or film since The Idol first aired.
Now, the pressure is really on Euphoria season 3 to pull something special out of the bag, both for Levinson and for HBO. Given that the show is set within the same fictional universe as The Idol, Euphoria’s third season needs to land to save the entire franchise. Otherwise, The Idol’s disastrous reception could precipitate a monumental collapse.
Why Euphoria Season 3 Will Be Better Than The Idol
There’s good news for Euphoria fans, though, as a first-look image of Zendaya confirms her return for season 3, which is set for release in April 2026. Other major stars such as Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi, Colman Domingo, and Hunter Schafer will be back on the show, too, alongside big-name additions Eli Roth, Colleen Camp, and Natasha Lyonne.
A cast of this standing has absolutely nothing to do with the newcomers to television who fronted The Idol, including pop superstar Abel Tesfaye, more commonly known as the Weeknd. The series was Tesfaye’s own passion project, and he had a major hand in its development from the very beginning.
Euphoria isn’t bound by the same imperative to cater to a singular, supremely influential creative talent. It’s an established and successive TV series subject to the same checks and balances as most other shows on HBO. At long last, its third season has the chance to consign The Idol’s many shortcomings to the past.
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
