Zendaya's Rejected Euphoria Season 3 Pitch Was Way Better Than What We Got

Contains spoilers for "Euphoria" Season 3, Episode 1 – "Ándale"

This article contains discussions of addiction.

Back in 2024, Variety ran an exclusive article about the battle to "save" the HBO series "Euphoria," created and controlled by Sam Levinson. In that report, the outlet noted that, despite a ton of filming delays for the show's third season — for context, Season 2 aired back in 2022 — HBO and Levinson were determined to forge ahead with Season 3. How they were going to do that, though, seems to be the question. What we got was a five-year time jump, taking characters like Rue Bennett (Zendaya), Nate Jacobs (Jacob Elordi), Cassie Howard (Sydney Sweeney), Jules Vaughn (Hunter Schafer), and Maddy Perez (Alexia Demie) out of high school and into the "real world." Apparently, Zendaya had other ideas ... and they sound awesome.

According to Variety reporters Kate Aurthur and Tatiana Siegel — who co-authored this report — Zendaya "offered Levinson significant input for where she'd like Season 3 to go," and her ideas sound genuinely great. She pitched a premise in which Rue, who is now sober as a young woman in her 20s, would be a pregnancy surrogate – but that sadly didn't pass muster with the network. To be fair to Levinson, even his first attempt, where Rue became a private detective (which sounds very "Veronica Mars"), was turned down by HBO.

This Variety article specifies that, at the time, Levinson was taking a third crack at the third season. Now that Season 3 is out in the world, what did we get? Honestly, we got a sensationalized, shock-value centered, and outright outlandish attempt to bring these characters into their early 20s, and it's all too easy to imagine a world where the "private detective" or "pregnancy surrogate" plotlines got to turn this season of "Euphoria" around. Sadly, that isn't the world we got.

It took such a long time to even make Season 3 of "Euphoria" — thanks to factors like the cast's busy schedule and the joint 2023 strike between the writing and acting guilds — that it makes sense that a lot of storylines got battered around before they actually picked up cameras. It does, however, feel like a missed opportunity to deny Rue any real character growth. We'll circle back to her lack thereof in the Season 3 premiere, but first, let's look at what could have been.

Zendaya and Sam Levinson's pitches for Rue are drastically different, but both could have shown her evolution as a character and a young woman. Zendaya's idea to make Rue a sober pregnancy surrogate is particularly layered. Rue, who grapples with addiction and begins the entirety of "Euphoria" fresh out of rehab, would be responsible for someone else's intended child, giving her a new sense of self-preservation — while also ensuring that the show didn't get too saccharine by turning Rue into a young mother. On the other hand, had Rue become a private detective, it would have definitely been more tongue-in-cheek (she could have, as we said, basically transformed into a Gen Z "Veronica Mars"), yet allowed her to check in on her coterie of privileged and disastrous friends. 

None of that came to pass, and the version of "Euphoria" we got for the show's third season — which, apparently, could be its last — is just more of the same. What does that mean? Nothing good!

Based on the Season 3 premiere of "Euphoria," Sam Levinson returned to some well-worn tropes and plotlines — and instead of seeing characters like Rue, Cassie, Nate, Jules, or Maddy grow and evolve, they're basically stuck doing what they've always done.

By way of example, when we first see Rue in that season premiere, she's not working on her sobriety; she's working as a drug mule for Laurie (Martha Kelly), the scary drug lord she betrayed back in Season 2. Nate and Cassie are, inexplicably, getting married, even though we last saw them in a total state of disarray after Maddy found out that her best friend and recent ex-boyfriend were hooking up behind her back. As for Maddy, she's a high-ranking publicist but acts exactly like she did back in high school, and we don't even see Jules in the season premiere but hear that she's working as a "sugar baby," which feels particularly notable when you consider that both Jules and actress Hunter Schafer are openly transgender (which is to say that the only trans main character on the show being a fetishized sex worker feels ... tough).

"Euphoria" Season 3 is centered around nudity, shock value, and increasingly gross sequences instead of prioritizing character growth or building toward a satisfying conclusion. We'll see how it all shakes out as the show continues airing its third season on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).