‘Euphoria’ Season 3 Likely Won’t Air Until 2025, Says HBO’s Drama Chief

Series creator Sam Levinson is "pencils down" on "The Idol," according to Francesca Orsi, while the WGA strike also impacts production.

Fans of HBO’s “Euphoria” won’t be left too euphoric over the latest news to come out from the premium cabler.

Speaking with Deadline, HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi said that amid productions getting repeatedly halted by the ongoing WGA strike and creator Sam Levinson’s “The Idol” duties, Season 3 of the Emmy winner likely won’t air until 2025. This news comes after various reports that the series would resume shooting in summer 2023. “Euphoria” has been off the air since Season 2 concluded in February 2022. Zendaya has won two Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series Emmys for her role.

“’Euphoria’ is one of those that we had begun writing in tandem with post-production on ‘Idol’ but at this point, we don’t have countless scripts,” Orsi said. “We can’t start shooting, so the delivery of that show — ideally in 2025 — will be determined on when we can pick back up with Sam, who at this point is all pencils down and just finishing posts on ‘Idol.’”

HBO has seen fewer work stoppages than other channels amid the WGA strike, where productions have either paused in solidarity with strikers or seen their writers’ rooms shut down as the Guild continues to tangle with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The strike is already well into week 3 after beginning May 2.

Costume designer Heidi Bivens recently spilled the beans during a Vogue interview that “Euphoria” hoped to shoot this June and that the new season would see a possible time jump, adding, “There is talk of it being approximately five years in the future, and that they’re not in high school anymore. Dorothy’s not in Kansas anymore.”

“Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson meanwhile just premiered his already controversial series “The Idol,” starring Lily-Rose Depp as a pop ingenue taken into the sway of a cult leader played by The Weeknd, who also co-created the show. The first two episodes premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival, with Levinson and team defending “The Idol” during the press conference against what they allege are specious claims about the project dating back to a Rolling Stone report in March about creative chaos on set. “The Idol” currently sits with a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of a June 4 HBO premiere — mere days after the cutoff for Emmy eligibility. Early reactions portend another hyper-stylized, sex- and drug-filled conversation piece in the vein of “Euphoria,” whose episodes in Season 2 averaged around 16 million viewers weekly.