Tonight is Jacob Elordi’s night—he is hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time. (Also, Reneé Rapp is tonight’s musical guest, so, yes.) As such, Elordi has been on the press circuit this week, and thanks to comments made on this talk show or that talk show, it sounds like—despite sometimes feeling like the opposite was true—Euphoria’s third season is actually going to happen. (The second season concluded in February 2022, nearly two full years ago, and, even still, the third season isn’t expected until 2025.)
Because of all the time that’s passed between seasons, Elordi is apparently getting concerned that he’s aging out of his role as teenager Nate Jacobs. “I hope [filming is] soon, otherwise they’re going to have to Benjamin Button me or something,” he joked on a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (and per E! News). “I’m going to have, like, a bad back walking down the hallway.”
Elordi—who, for the record, is 26—then addressed rumors that the third season will include a time jump that takes the high school-aged characters into adulthood: “I’m assuming that we’re going to have to go forward,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s going to seem like a weird bit.”
Since the show premiered in 2019, Elordi has also won acclaim in films like Saltburn and Priscilla—and some very, very famous fans, too. “The biggest one is probably Leonardo DiCaprio, which sounds like a crazy name drop,” he said. “But yeah, Leonardo DiCaprio.” He added that DiCaprio “came up to me in a club one time when I was sort of much younger. There’s really loud music and everything and he’s like, ‘Hey, the shot in the first season, you know, the show where you came in.’ And then it’s just him and I, and we’re in this club just going like…talking about camera angles.” Shocking no one, Elordi made no bones about it being a mutual admiration society, saying of DiCaprio “He’s the GOAT.”
So, as we all anxiously await season three, we can pass the time by indulging in the viral candle inspired by that bathtub scene in Saltburn. Fallon, the good interviewer that he is, handed one of the candles to Elordi to smell and—after mimicking the slurping noises of Barry Keoghan (watch the movie, and you’ll get it)—he said “It smells like a washing room, like detergent.” Interesting.
And, while we can presumably expect Elordi (as well as co-stars like Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney) for season three of Euphoria, we won’t see Angus Cloud onscreen, as he tragically passed away last summer; Barbie Ferreira will also not be returning to set. “I feel like with season two and certain parts of it, I felt was a kind of a struggle for both parties,” she said on the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” podcast, referencing herself and showrunner Sam Levinson. “It was a struggle to find the continuation of her [Kat Hernandez, her character]. So that was actually really hurtful watching it and seeing the fans get upset.” She added “Sam writes for, like, things that he relates to. I don’t think he relates to Kat. I like Kat, so I get to go on my own path. At first, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m a flop. I’m a loser.’ It really has been a good thing,” she said of her exit from the show.
Okay, but we’re still thinking about the time jump. Elordi’s comments seem to confirm it, but it’s not the first we’ve heard about it. The show’s costume designer Heidi Bivens told Vogue that season three might take place half a decade after season two: “There is talk of it being approximately five years in the future, and that they’re not in high school anymore,” she said. “Dorothy’s not in Kansas anymore. I mean, it might be a total trip. Who can say? But knowing Sam’s brain, it’s gonna be exciting, and he will challenge all of us, because he won’t want to repeat himself. It’ll be something new for the audience to discover.”
Zendaya seemed to confirm this as well while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’ll be exciting to explore the characters out of high school,” she said. “I want to see what Rue [her character] looks like in her sobriety journey, how chaotic that might look. But also with all the characters, in the sense where they’re trying to figure out what to do with their lives when high school is over and what kind of people they want to be. What was special about [season two] was that we got to dive into [the other characters] in a much deeper sense. I think we can do that again with the third season. There’s so much talent, you want to make sure everybody has the chance to have that.”
As to whether the third season will be its last, HBO and Max content chairman and CEO Casey Bloys wouldn’t confirm or deny. “Obviously the cast have all become stars, which you love to see—and Zendaya is obviously a big movie star,” Bloys told Variety after the Emmys. “So, there is a practical reality to that. But it also depends on the stories Sam wants to tell. He’s in the thick of writing season three right now and we’ll leave it up to him and have those conversations about what he wants to do.”
