Zendaya and Sam Levinson Fallout Behind ‘Euphoria’ Delay

More details behind what contributed to the three year gap between the second and third season of HBO’s popular series Euphoria have emerged, with The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters reporting that the disintegrated friendship between the show’s star Zendaya and show creator Sam Levinson may have contributed to the show’s delay. Sources told THR that though the pair were “thick as thieves” during the show’s first two seasons, with Zendaya shadowing Levinson to inform her character’s drug addiction struggle and even spending time at Levinson’s home, eventually the writer-creator’s sidestepping Euphoria for his critically panned one-season series The Idol led to the deterioration of their friendship. Sources said that Zendaya, who also starred in Levinson’s 2021 film Malcolm & Marie, hadn’t wanted the showrunner to take his attention off of Euphoria and put in on The Idol in the first place, and was further peeved when she was swept up in the backlash against the series, as it had threatened her otherwise “pristine” image. Another source told the site that the pair “went from being so close, and they couldn’t fix it.”