Zendaya teases major change for Euphoria season three: ‘It’ll be exciting’
Zendaya in Euphoria. (HBO)
Emmy-award winning actor and all-round icon Zendaya has shared her ideas for season three of Euphoria.
The actor, who plays Rue and is an executive producer on the hit HBO series, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how the show could evolve when it makes its eagerly-awaited return.
Euphoria season two had a particular focus on Rue’s relapse into and then recovery from drug addiction, with a dramatic school play propelling other plotlines forward.
Zendaya is keen to see the show move past its high school setting. She said: “I think it’ll be exciting to explore the characters out of high school. 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.”
Speaking about season two, she added: “What was special about this season was that we got to dive into [the other characters] in a much deeper sense.
“I think we can do that again with the third season. There’s so much talent, you want to make sure everybody has the chance to have that.”
Rue (Zendaya) and Jules (Hunter Schafer) catch up in their high school’s theatre in the finale of Euphoria’s second season. (HBO)
Zendaya also opened up about her experiences serving as an executive producer on Euphoria on season two.
“I was already doing it without having the title,” she admitted, “Sam [Levinson] was giving me the space to be creative and to learn.”
She continued: “The show has allowed me to come out of my shell as an actress, but also behind the camera, being in a place where there are no bad ideas and you feel safe enough to speak up and say, ‘hey, what if we tried this?’.
“Personally, I’m very self-critical, but I’m also very shy sometimes, so I won’t say anything. [But here], I’m given my own responsibilities.”
Zendaya’s involvement in Rue’s character arc has been incredibly influential. She explained the hopeful ending that starts Rue on her sobriety journey came after a phone call between herself and Levinson midway through filming.
Another last minute change also saw a different character than originally planned die at the end of season two..
After a devastating SWAT raid on Fezco’s home (Angus Cloud) which saw his younger brother Ashtray (Javon Walton) die, Walton revealed: “It was Fez that was supposed to die. Then about a day before we started filming, I figured out that I was supposed to die.
“It was crazy because then we had to rewrite the whole script for the whole ending part. It was insane that that ended up being the ending of it all.”
Euphoria will return for a third season. You can stream all episodes so far on HBO Max in the US, and Sky and NOW in the UK.
