Inside The Rise And Fall Of Sam Levinson's "Euphoria" Empire

I don’t think I fully understood the meaning of the phrase “off the rails” until I watched the first three episodes of the third and final season of Sam Levinson’s Euphoria. To be clear, I didn’t finish watching the season—didn’t tune in last Sunday night for the finale to an almost six-year-long saga. “I’ll just watch it via TikTok or Threads,” I thought to myself. “That’s enough for me.”

And though Rue’s ending felt tragically poetic to me the same way it did for many others, I’ve found it a feat of mental gymnastics to wrap my head around how and why we ended up… there in the first place. Because though I’ll never dispute the nuance of holding two seemingly incongruent truths at once, it feels near impossible to do that with Euphoria. After all, how could the Euphoria that enraptured the world six years ago—the same one I watched huddled away in a cinderblock NYU dorm during the final days of my big summer internship in the city—be the same perverted horror show my roommates and I gaped at from our couch earlier this spring? How did this critically-acclaimed show go from the brightest shooting star in Hollywood’s sky, to a gaudy disco ball still spinning long after the club closed?

A few answers might have already sprung to your mind. And, though I’m no television big whig, if I had to guess, a lot of them are probably right. But the fall of Rome didn’t happen overnight. And neither did the fall of Sam Levinson’s empire of Euphoria.

May 11, 2019: The first full-length trailer for HBO’s latest high-gloss prestige show, Euphoria, drops. Created by filmmaker and writer Sam Levinson (Assassination Nation), Levinson loosely based the new teen drama off an Israeli mini-series of the same name, while infusing the story with some of his own struggles with addiction, depression, and anxiety as a teenager. Executive producers included (bafflingly) Drake and Levinson’s friend and long-time collaborator, Kevin Turen—among others.

Turen would become an integral figure in the saga of Levinson and Euphoria. At this point in the story, the context you need to understand is the dynamic between the two. Reports appear to paint Turen and Levinson’s relationship as that of level-headed, gregarious producer and mercurial artist who each seemed to balance the other out. Levinson was the vision, while Turen was the voice of reason.

June 12, 2019: The Hollywood Reporter publishes a story on the upcoming premiere of Euphoria, which ran with the title “HBO’s Explicit ‘Euphoria’ Courts Controversy: How Much Teen Sex and Drugs Is Too Much?” The piece featured interviews from some of the stars—including Alexa Demie, Zendaya, and Barbie Ferreira—as well as various HBO executives. An HBO insider admitted to the outlet that “It’s not for everyone,” while HBO CEO Casey Bloys emphasized “It’s not sensational to be sensational.” He continued, “No one has come to us and said, ‘Hey, tone this down.’ […] The only thing they’ve done is given us more money and said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.'”

June 16, 2019: The first episode Euphoria airs on HBO to glowing (if mildly unnerved) reviews from viewers and critics alike. The show followed teenage drug addict, Rue—played by the then-still-Disney-star Zendaya—and an ensemble of other high schoolers (all relative Hollywood unknowns) meant to all be emblematic of a modern generation riddled with anxiety and strife. “It's horrifying, yes, and salacious, but it's not just shocking for the sake of shock value,” said Esquire’s Matt Miller in a review posted online the day of the premiere. “Euphoria—which delves into a generation struggling to come of age in a time of nude selfies, and dating apps, and easy access to pornography—does this with the purpose of trying to understand Generation Z and pinpoint the experience of being a teenager in 2019, while holding adults accountable for creating a fucked up world and leaving their children to fend for themselves within it.”

The show also starred including Sydney Sweeney (The Handmaid’s Tale), Hunter Schaffer, and Jacob Elordi (whose primary acting credit at the time was Netflix’s adaptation of the Wattpad-story-turned-commercial-book, The Kissing Booth).

August 4, 2019: The finale of Euphoria season one airs. The episode ended with Rue relapsing, which was depicted through the hallucinatory avant-garde musical number, “All For Us.” The modern, gospel-tinged song was created by the show’s lead composer, Labrinth, and was immediately lauded as the sort of trailblazing storytelling moment that makes you re-think if you’re actually pushing the creative envelope as much as you think they are. “For the moment, Euphoria may still be more style than substance. But this episode confirmed for me that the show does have something genuinely meaningful to say about addiction and a completely original storytelling language for it,” Vulture’s Allie Pape said of the finale at the time.

September 20, 2020: Zendaya wins the Emmy for “Lead Actress in a Drama Series” for her performance in Euphoria.

December 4, 2020: The Euphoria capsule episode, “Trouble Don’t Always Last,” airs. One of two capsule episodes, these specials aired during COVID in the interim between seasons one and two, and follows Rue after Jules left her at the train station and her subsequent relapse.

January 24, 2021: The second Euphoria capsule episode airs. Titled “Fuck Anyone Who’s Not a Sea Blob,” the episode focused on Hunter Schafer’s Jules in the immediate aftermath of season one.

At this point, everyone involved in the show seemed to be obsessed with each other. If you go back and watch any behind the scenes clips or interviews from around this time, it’s clear everyone on the show had a deep admiration of each other and the work they were doing on the show. The cast were all friends (though Zendaya and Elordi had reportedly had a fling in early 2020), and they all worshipped Levinson as their creative fairy godfather.

March 2021: Production begins on Euphoria season 2, over a year after the show’s season 1 finale. Production delays mostly came out of pandemic-related concerns. Still, this was only the beginning of what would become a culture of delays and false starts that defined the show in the coming years.

November 2021: HBO announces series order of The Idol, a drama co-created by The Weeknd, Reza Fahim, and Sam Levinson. It was announced Amy Seimetz would direct all six episodes, with Lily-Rose Depp starring. It’s reported Turen was who brought The Idol to Levinson’s desk. The Hollywood Reporter described the show as “set against the backdrop of the music industry in Los Angeles. It centers on a self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult who develops a complicated relationship with an up-and-coming pop singer.” A 2024 piece from The Hollywood Reporter alleged that “Levinson wrote a spec script for the pilot but was not supposed to spend too much time on the project because he was still occupied with Euphoria‘s season two.”

January 5, 2022: The Euphoria season two red carpet premiere. Barbie Ferreira, who played Kat Hernandez, was notably absent. At the time, rumors were already starting to swirl about a possible feud between the two.

Algee Smith’s Chris McKay was also absent from the premiere and, surprisingly, almost the entirely of season two. Smith, who had been a series regular in the first season, only appeared in the season two premiere for inexplicably disappearing for the rest of the show. On January 20, 2022, Smith told The Daily Beast he was “not really even sure” where his character was going in the show, going on the reveal him and Levinson hadn’t discussed where the character was going or why he was absent from the show. (The article went on to speculate the omission was in part due to Smith not yet receiving the COVID vaccine at the time.)

January 9, 2022: The premiere of season two of Euphoria airs. “After a more than two-year hiatus, aside from two one-off episodes released last year, Euphoria is coming out of quarantine hot, with an abundance of artistic confidence that makes it intoxicating to watch even when its young people are being put through some serious wringers,” Vulture’s Jen Chaney wrote following the show’s HBO premiere.

February 17, 2022: The Daily Beast publishes “Inside ‘Euphoria’ Season 2’s Messy Behind-the-Scenes Drama, From Sam Levinson to Barbie Ferreira Storming Off.” The piece, which cites “a handful of production sources,” revealed tensions between some cast members and Levinson. Namely it alleged that Levinson and Barbie Ferreira frequently “butted heads” over the creative direction of her character Kat—resulting in “Ferreira allegedly walking off set and Levinson cutting back her screen time.”

February 27, 2022: The finale of Euphoria season two airs. The episode, titled “All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name,” primarily followed the ensemble of characters as they watch Lexie’s (Maude Apatow) play—a meta, mostly-autobiographical re-telling of her life, and by extension the lives of the show’s characters. “Through this fantastical, high-wired high school production, Levinson reasserts his aesthetic and narrative preferences and the show’s curiosities: creatively reflecting the emotional core of its characters. How far will they go to fulfill their needs? How far will Levinson push them?” Variety’s Lovia Gyarkye wrote at the time. “Euphoria often resorts to messy, experimental and sometimes pompous storytelling to answer these questions. If the finale is any indication of what’s to come, the message for those still on board seems to be: Submit to the fantasy and don’t overthink the ride.”

April 2022: Amy Seimetz exits The Idol. An HBO spokeswoman spoke to Deadline, saying, “The Idol’s creative team continues to build, refine, and evolve their vision for the show and they have aligned on a new creative direction. The production will be adjusting its cast and crew accordingly to best serve this new approach to the series. We look forward to sharing more information soon.”

August 2022: Barbie Ferreira announces via Instagram she will no longer play Kat Hernandez in Euphoria. The news came following swirling rumors of creative and personal disputes between Ferreira and showrunner Levinson. That discourse was further exacerbated by what many fans viewed as a lack-luster season two character arc for Kat.

September 12, 2022: Zendaya wins a second Emmy for her portrayal of Rue in Euphoria.

March 1, 2023: Rolling Stone publishes an investigation on how The Idol “became twisted ‘torture porn,’” just two months ahead of the show’s Cannes premiere. Crew members referred to the series as “sexual torture porn” featuring the “rape fantasy” of a “toxic man.”

Reports indicate that the relationship between Levinson and Zendaya—who were once “thick as thieves,” with the actress frequently shadowing the filmmaker in the hopes of directing in season 3—further curdled around the release of this article. Things were already tense between the two, with Zendaya growing increasingly frustrated with Levinson’s perceived neglect of Euphoria as he became more involved with The Idol.

And the actress wasn’t the only person to have a falling out with Levinson. By this point, the Euphoria creator had also “cut ties” with his long-time collaborator, Kevin Turen, in what many insiders viewed as a shocking split. It’s a little convoluted how and why this happened, though this piece from The Hollywood Reporter (which I’ve cited quite a bit) does a decent job explaining what went down. All you need to know is that, by Cannes 2023, Turen and Levinson are no longer speaking or working together, and Turen was not invited to Cannes for The Idol premiere—even though he brought the project to Levinson and was credited as an executive producer.

May 22, 2023: The Idol premieres at Cannes Film Festival. When Levinson was questioned about the March 2023 Rolling Stone investigation, the show runner replied that the allegations were “completely foreign to me.” He said that when his wife, Ashley, read the him the story, he “looked at her and I said, ‘I think we’re about to have the biggest show of the summer.’”

June 4, 2023: The first episode of The Idol, starring Lily-Rose Depp and The Weekend, premieres on HBO. “One could argue there’s something revolutionary in the way Levinson depicts female sexuality,” Peter Debruge wrote for Variety following the show’s premiere at Cannes earlier that May. “The script (overhauled by Levinson, Reza Fahim and The Weeknd after an earlier, Amy Seimetz-helmed version was scrapped) seems calculated to fool audiences into thinking they’re observing how Hollywood operates, when so much of it amounts to tawdry clichés lifted from Sidney Sheldon novels and softcore porn.”

July 2, 2023: The season finale of The Idol, “Jocelyn Forever,” airs. “In the end, The Idol was neither as offensive as its detractors claimed nor as “revolutionary” as co-creator Sam Levinson believed,” Alison Herman wrote for Variety at the time. “Like so many works of art that too openly aim for provocation, the five-episode HBO drama got in its own way, passing off reductive clichés as radical transgression.” The show currently has an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Production prices were estimated at $54 million to $75 million.

July 3, 2023: An unknown Twitter user posts images allegedly from the set of Amy Seimetz’s version of The Idol, claiming the earlier version “was going to include scenes that referenced jocelyn’s past as a child star.” The images, which included star Lily-Rose Depp, and statement vaguely outlined a more “bubblegum pop” take of the series that explored the intricacies of young female stardom. The lives and careers of Selena Gomez and Britney Spears are frequently referenced as parallels when discussing this version of the show. Outcry over The Idol had hit a fever pitch at this time, and the revelations of Seimetz’s version of the show only added more fuel to that fire.

In the of the Rise and Fall of the Sam Levinson Empire, the Amy Seimetz version of The Idol is something of myth and legend. It’s only ever talked about in rumors and whispered laments of what could have been. Images and vague mentions of this “female focused” earlier version trickled out sometime as the show as we know it finished airing, and in earnest when it ended.

However, it was alleged that The Weeknd did not approve of this “female perspective,” which resulted in this 2022 shift. Seimetz has never commented on her departure or her version of the show—which was allegedly 80% complete when she was dismissed and the series was overhauled—other than to tell The Hollywood Reporter that she “looks back fondly on The Idol that she made.” HBO, Levinson, and others involved in The Idol also haven’t acknowledged this version of the show past passing mentions that it exists, making everything the public knows about it pure conjecture.

July 31, 2023: Angus Cloud—who played the role of Rue’s drug dealer, Fezco—dies at 25. It is later revealed the late actor died of a “accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs.”

It cannot be understated how much Angus Cloud’s death sent shockwaves through Levinson and the future of Euphoria. It’s reported the show-runner went to great lengths to support Cloud and help him stay sober. In an exclusive with People following the actor’s passing, Levinson—a former addict himself—shared how he helped stage multiple interventions and took Cloud to rehab. He even re-worked Euphoria scripts for seasons one and two that previously had Cloud’s character dying in an effort to keep him on the show and employed.

“I think the hardest thing is when you have addiction issues—it's about finding your purpose and finding your meaning in life,” Levinson told People. “The one thing that I knew is he loved making this show […] And I just thought, if this goes away, I don't know what's going to happen in his life."

August 2023: The Idol is cancelled after just one season. “The Idol was one of HBO’s most provocative original programs, and we’re pleased by the strong audience response,” said a spokesperson for HBO told Variety. “After much thought and consideration, HBO, as well as the creators and producers have decided not to move forward with a second season.”

September 2023: The Petra Collins Papers start to circulate. As The Idol crashes and burns, the Internet finds even more ammunition to support the narrative of Levinson as a misogynistic egomaniac who uses and discards female creatives—this time in the form of screenshots from a January 2023 interview for Hungarian publication Punkt with the Canadian artist and film director Petra Collins. In the interview, Collins states Levinson approached her to direct the first season of Euphoria, citing her visuals and work as inspirations for the show. Collins spent five months in Los Angeles honing what would become the show’s trademark neon-pop aesthetic and even helped with casting, before she was abruptly dismissed by Levinson and the network because she was “too young” to direct.

November 12, 2023: Kevin Turen tragically and abruptly dies at 44. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sam Levinson and his wife, “were not welcome at the funeral.” The couple did host their own private memorial service.

July 2024: The Hollywood Reporter writes that a production start date has finally been set for Euphoria season 3, with many key cast members returning. The season three script went through a myriad of different iterations that were rejected by HBO, Zendaya, or other stakeholders. The first stab, which HBO nixed, had Rue as a private detective. Zendaya herself even pitched a storyline in which Rue became a surrogate mother. Eventually the version of Euphoria season 3 as we know it came into shape sometime in 2024. “Good luck to us,” one person closely involved in the show said to The Hollywood Reporter around that time. “Who knows what the hell will happen.”

November 2024: Storm Reid, who played the part of Rue’s sister Gia, announces she will not return for season three of Euphoria.

January 2025: Production begins on Euphoria season 3, almost three years after its season two finale.

Though the show defied all odds and managed to strong arm itself into a final season, the road blocks were far from over. For one, Levinson had to contend with scheduling the demanding and varying filming schedules of the now major A-List actors he helped make into household names—including Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Colman Domingo, and Hunter Schafer.

Not to mention the fact that, in the over five years since the show originally aired, many of the once-close cast members had experienced falling outs that reportedly resulted in refusals to film together. (Notably, it’s rumored Schafer refused to film with Elordi—despite their two characters having a long, unresolved history in the show.)

July 2025: Hans Zimmer announced as a co-composer on Euphoria season 3. It’s also confirmed that Labrinth will also return.

November 2025: Production wraps on Euphoria season 3.

March/April 2026: Musical artist and Euphoria composer, Labrinth, announces his music will not be in Euphoria season 3 via a series of Instagram stories. The composer first posted a story on Instagram in March saying “I’m done with this industry. Fuck Columbia. Double fuck ‘Euphoria.’ I’m out. Thank you and good night x.” Levinson later commented to Rolling Stone on Labrinth’s departure from the show, sharing “He’s an incredible collaborator and someone who really built the foundation of the sound of Euphoria.” A few short days later, Labrinth posted on his Instagram once again, saying “People will comfortably lie in this industry and still call themselves honest people. So no cap, I decided to remove whatever music I had in it. I spoke to HBO, as far as I know, we are cool. I left because, last truth, when I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me, but I don’t let people treat me like shit.”

Another absence of note in season three was former costume designer, Heidi Bivens. Much of Euphoria’s early critical acclaim was wrapped up in its distinct visual style. Bivens played a large role in that, even publishing a Euphoria Fashion coffee-table book through A24 in 2022. Not unlike how Labrinth’s music largely came to shape and distinguish the show, Bivens’ visual eye helped mold the distinct style that had become a marker of the show and made it different from anything else on television. In a show that largely became defined by its absences—of cast-mates, of collaborators, of direction—I think anyone who’s watch Euphoria from the beginning can attest that the absence of both Labrinth and Bivens in season three is painstakingly notable.

April 12, 2026: The first episode of Euphoria season 3 airs. In a review titled “Euphoria Is A Monument to Sam Levinson’s Lack of Creativity,” New York Magazine’s Roxana Hadid wrote of the premiere “So much of this third season of Euphoria boils down to sex, money, and power as the only motivators for our American identity, and hey, I agree! But there’s little distinct ideology from Levinson about why that is, or how it would filter down to a generation like Gen Z. […] Moments that gesture at America’s prevailing culture as a corrupt, hypocritical thing that trickles down to infect everyone are a fascinating glimpse into what might be Levinson’s unfiltered thoughts on our collective psyche, but then he’ll cut to another shot of a female character being joyfully objectified, and the sense of Euphoria offering something deeper, something more insightful, collapses.”

May 31, 2026: The series finale of Euphoria, “In God We Trust,” airs to over 8 million viewers. Critics largely pan the episode and season, lamenting how a show once heralded as “a clear expression of teenage angst” ended “a jumbled mishmash that did a lot and said little,” per Variety.

Where does Levinson go from here? For a while, it seemed his distinct creative vision and storytelling was enough to eclipse (or at least ignore) his volatile personality. But now it seems the vision Levinson staked his empire on was only ever a tenuous house of cards—one wrong wind away from knocking down. Four years ago, Hollywood was a wide open expanse of opportunities for Levinson. With no new projects slated on the horizon, it appears that fruitful field has perhaps gone barren.