Zendaya’s Rue Almost Had a Very Different Euphoria Season 3 Ending

3 min read

THE RUNDOWN

• Euphoria creator Sam Levinson originally had a different ending in mind for season 3 and Zendaya’s character Rue.
• The passing of Euphoria star Angus Cloud influenced that change.
• “Once he passed away, I had to reconceive of the script,” Levinson explained in an interview with Popcast.

Spoilers below.

Euphoria came to a shocking conclusion last night, which included the tragic death of a beloved main character, but it almost ended differently. In an interview with The New York Times’s Popcast, showrunner Sam Levinson said he originally wrote a different arc for Zendaya’s character Rue—and “not just the ending, but the whole [season].”

“There was a different trajectory for the character of Rue,” Levinson explained. “And, this is during the writers’ strike [in 2023] and we got the news that Angus [Cloud] passed away.” Cloud, who starred in Euphoria’s first two seasons, died of an accidental overdose at the age of 25 in July 2023.

“I’d always been really concerned about the prevalence of fentanyl, and it’s something that we’ve dealt with over the seasons, and even in my first film [Another Happy Day],” Levinson continued. “But once he passed away, I had to reconceive of the script, and I thought, you can’t tell a story about addiction today without the very real consequences. Most people don’t get a second chance.

“Fentanyl can just take you out in an instant. It wasn’t like when I was growing up; you could literally take pills off the street and you might have a bad trip or something, but you’d be fine. This is something that hits close to home for a lot of people in this country. So it felt like the responsible thing to do.

“One of the larger thematic ideas for this season was pulling back the illusions of the world that we live in, whether it’s ‘likes will fulfill your soul,’ whether it’s love, money, fame, ‘drugs will provide an escape.’ And it felt like if we were really gonna be saying something with this season, we needed to put the audience in the position of a family member who loses someone that they love. I wanted to mirror that feeling. And I know how much audiences love Rue. It felt like I could put them in the position that I think a lot of families are in.”

Sure enough, the season 3 finale—which doubles as the finale of the whole series—shows Rue dying of an accidental overdose when she takes Percocet that’s laced with fentanyl. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were over 73,000 overdose deaths linked to fentanyl in the U.S. in 2023 alone.

“I think in the end, I wanted to tell an honest story about addiction,” Levinson said in a separate interview in an HBO behind-the-scenes video about the season 3 finale. He added, “People relapse. They fuck up. They’re not ready to get clean. And they weren’t dying like they are now, with the influx of fentanyl into this country.”

The Hollywood Reporter stated in April that Cloud “was meant to play a large role” in Euphoria season 3. As Levinson explained to Popcast, the changes he made from his previous drafts were not only “practical,” because Cloud would no longer be present, but also personal.

“I think I try to find meaning in what I’m about to do, whether it’s writing, whether it’s hooting, whether it’s directing, editing,” he said. “I try to make sure that it’s moving or headed towards something that’s fulfilling and matters to me.”