Euphoria reveals premiere date and trailer for season three

Do you remember when the most recent episodes of Euphoria came out?

It was early 2022 and the world was only just waking up again after the pandemic. Literally, Australia reopened its borders six days before Euphoria season two’s finale. Yes, it’s been that long. Even longer than the break for Stranger Things’ fifth instalment.

The world has changed in those four years, and so has the audience who were obsessed with the lurid lives of Euphoria’s teenage characters.

Will they still have the same patience for creator Sam Levinson’s maximalist, some would say sexually exploitative, instincts as they did four years ago?

We’re about to find out.

The third season of Euphoria is due to premiere on April 12, and that revelation was accompanied by a teaser trailer which gives an idea of where Rue and the gang have landed.

There’s a time jump of “a few years after high school” and Rue (Zendaya) tells everyone in voiceover that she’s not sure if life was as she had wished for while we see images of bags of pills.

Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) seems to be back with Nate (Jacob Elordi) and headed for the aisle. She’s also a “content creator”, dressed up in a brown corset and dog ears and tale, shaking her derriere for the camera.

Jules (Hunter Schaffer) is seen lying supine on a luxe lounger in a fancy apartment while dialogue suggests she might be living as a “sugar baby”.

There are quick cuts of people with guns, crime and neon lights in what seems to be an escalation of the melodramatic beats Euphoria was already known for.

Other returning cast members include Maude Apatow, Alexa Demie, Eric Dane and Colman Domingo, while Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Australia actor Toby Wallace join the ensemble.

Some familiar faces won’t be back, including Angus McCloud, who played Fez. McCloud died in 2023 at the age of 25. His death was ruled as an overdose.

Barbie Ferreira and her character Kat also won’t be returning this season. She and Levinson made the “mutual decision” to end her run on the show.

Ferreira said on Dax Shepard’s podcast that she didn’t want to play the “fat best friend” anymore and got the sense the filmmakers didn’t really know what to do with the character.

“Sam (Levinson) writes for like, things that he relates to. I don’t think he relates to Kat,” she added.

The third was season was scheduled to return sooner but was production was disrupted due to the 2023 dual Hollywood actors and writers strikes.

It has also had the challenge of coordinating the schedules of its high profile cast, many of whom became very in-demand since the second season wrapped.

Zendaya had been in the industry since she was a kid, but Sweeney and Elordi have seen their stars explode in the past four years.

Levinson, the son of director Barry Levinson, also kept himself semi-busy with the widely derided series The Idol, which was plagued not just by terrible reviews and a quick cancellation, but also an expose from Rolling Stone of production issues behind the scenes.