They said it was dead in the water. But after nearly three years of waiting and an aggressive rumor mill claiming that Zendaya's Emmy-winning vehicle was done for, Euphoria season 3 has finally begun filming. HBO confirmed that production had begun on Monday, February 10, sharing a still of Zendaya on social media.

“We are shooting Euphoria,” HBO Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys told reporters at an HBO/Max press event last year. "I think we have a start date, mid to late January. Nothing’s changed. Somebody said something online, and then this whole thing started. We are shooting the season. I have read the scripts. We’re happy. We’re moving ahead. All of the actors.”

Getting all the stars of Euphoria to come back was no guarantee, as the show has minted new movie stars in Challengers star Zendaya, Anyone But You's Sydney Sweeney, and Saltburn's Jacob Elordi. It was recently announced that Zendaya had been tapped to star in Christopher Nolan's next film with Anne Hathaway, while Elordi is set to reteam with his Saltburn director Emerald Fennell for a film adaptation of Wuthering Heights opposite Margot Robbie.

“I know the show gets a lot of attention now because, you know, it has created some genuine movie stars, and they have various projects that are working on, but we are shooting this season, so nothing has changed,” Bloys said. “It’s eight episodes.”

While fans of the edgy high school series may be shocked to hear that it will return after all, a January start date has been the plan according to senior execs at HBO for months. On Friday, July 12, HBO announced that the Emmy-winning series’ third season would begin filming once again in January 2025. “I am thrilled that we are ready to begin production on Euphoria in January,” said Francesca Orsi, EVP of HBO programming and head of HBO drama series and films, in a statement to Deadline. “We could not be happier with our creative partnership with [ series creator] Sam [Levinson] and this incredible cast. We look forward to bringing this new season of Euphoria to life for the fans.” The outlet reports that all of the main cast is expected to be involved.

This is long-awaited news, particularly since rumors swirled in March 2024 that HBO had scrapped the third season of Euphoria entirely. A spokesperson for HBO confirmed at the time that while production on season three of Euphoria had been delayed, the network and Levinson “remain committed” to making the hit teen drama show. “HBO and Sam Levinson remain committed to making an exceptional third season,” an HBO spokesperson told Variety. “In the interim, we are allowing our in-demand cast to pursue other opportunities.”

Details about the third season have been kept close to the chest, with Levinson telling Elle last August that he sees the third season of Euphoria as a “film noir.” In the coming episodes, Zendaya’s troubled but well-intentioned Rue will “explore what it means to be an individual with principles in a corrupt world,” Levinson said at the time. Read on to learn what else we know about the upcoming episodes, including info from Sweeney about when filming may commence.

So what has taken Euphoria so long?!

Euphoria season 3 has been delayed in part due to 2023’s writers and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Additionally, the season has reportedly been reworked after an initial pass involving a time jump and a plot about Zendaya’s Rue becoming a private detective.

Series lead Jacob Elordi poked fun at the extended timeline between seasons while on The Tonight Show in early 2024. “I hope it’s soon, or they’re going to have to Benjamin Button me or something,” he joked. “I’m going to have a bad back walking down the hallway, you know?”

Initially, British GQ reported in a March 2024 interview of Sweeney that filming on the show’s third season was set to begin within two months. Sweeney told GQ UK that the season would mark a departure for the series. “I think that’s good because seasons one and two were so different,” Sweeney said. (Vanity Fair reached out to HBO for comment on the filming schedule.) That timeline got pushed back, though, reportedly after both HBO and Zendaya sent back Levinson’s scripts for season 3 at different stages in the drafting process.

What happened at the end of season two, anyway?

The season two finale of Euphoria was, to put it mildly, a doozy. It picks up with the second part of a very meta play written by Lexi (Maude Apatow) about her childhood in Euphoria-ville. Maddy (Alexa Demie) comes to the startling realization that she is a central character in the play (“Is this play about us?”), causing her to go on a slap-happy rampage against her ex-best friend, Cassie (Sweeney), that completely derails the performance.

Outside of the theater, Nate (Elordi) confronts his father, Cal (Eric Dane), with a flash drive containing all of Cal’s explicit videos, and tips off the police about them, leading to Cal’s arrest. Fez (Angus Cloud) also has a run-in with the police, resulting in a shoot-out in his apartment where his “little brother” Ashtray (Javon Walton), is shot and Fez is arrested. Rue has a heart-to-heart with her estranged BFF-slash-girlfriend, Jules (Hunter Schafer), confessing her love for Jules and hoping to reconcile. The season ends on a cautiously optimistic note as Rue reveals that she stayed clean for the rest of the school year and is, for once, looking forward to the future.

Can I at least watch the stars of Euphoria somewhere else while I wait for the new season?

Yes! While Euphoria has been off the air since airing its second season finale on February 27, 2022, its cast of troubled teens have been keeping busy filming other projects. Zendaya starred in two highly anticipated films this year—Denis Villeneuve’s Dune follow-up, Dune: Part Two, and Luca Guadagnino’s tennis ménage à trois, Challengers, costarring Josh Charles and Mike Faist.

Hunter Schafer can be seen in the Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, opposite Rachel Zegler and Viola Davis. Sydney Sweeney, who plays lovable mess Cassie on Euphoria, has shown her range by filming two very different movies: Reality and Anyone But You. Sweeney has garnered some awards buzz for her role as American intelligence leaker Reality Winner in the Max drama, which hit the streaming platform in May. She’s also turned heads with Anyone but You, a romantic comedy that hit theaters last December, in part due to off-screen romance rumors with her costar Glen Powell.

Sweeney’s not the only one in awards-friendly films. Her secret Euphoria boyfriend, Nate, played by Aussie Jacob Elordi, has starred in two buzzy projects by female auteurs: Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, where he plays a wealthy Oxford student, and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, where he stars as Elvis Presley, which, apparently, stunned Priscilla Presley with his vocal impression of the King of Rock and Roll. Colman Domingo, who won an Emmy for his role as Rue’s sponsor, Ali Muhammed, on Euphoria, also had a busy award season in 2023. He earned an Oscar nomination for his starring role as queer civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in Netflix’s biopic Rustin, directed by George C. Wolfe. He also starred as the dastardly Mister in the highly anticipated film adaptation of the Broadway musical The Color Purple, starring Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks.

What about Euphoria creator Sam Levinson?

Levinson, of course, has also kept busy: he helmed the critically and commercially panned HBO drama The Idol, starring Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp. He’ll have plenty of time to focus on Euphoria once the SAG strike ends, as The Idol was canceled after a single season.

And what about the stars who won’t return for Euphoria season three?

Alas, Barbie Ferreira, who starred as Kat on the first two seasons of the series, has left the series after reported tension with Levinson. Euphoria cast member Angus Cloud will also not appear in season three: The actor, who memorably played beloved drug dealer Fez, died of an accidental overdose this summer, at the age of 25. After his death, tributes poured out from his Euphoria cast mates. “Words are not enough to describe the infinite beauty that is Angus (Conor),” wrote Zendaya in an Instagram caption featuring a picture of Cloud. “I’m so grateful I got the chance to know him in this life, to call him a brother, to see his warm kind eyes and bright smile, or hear his infectious cackle of a laugh (I’m smiling now just thinking of it).”

Storm Reid, who played Rue's younger sister Gia, is also out of the third season. “Unfortunately, Gia’s not returning for the third season, but I’m so, so indebted to the cast and crew of that show [and] to HBO," she told Rotten Tomatoes in November 2024. "Euphoria is a really special thing.”

This post will be updated.