Sam Levinson describes Euphoria season 3 as a 'film noir,' teases the next chapter of Rue's story

The famously traumatic Euphoria is about to get a whole lot darker.

Series creator Sam Levinson is looking to the future, as he recently told Elle, and sees the third season as a "film noir." He added that through Rue, the recovering teen addict played by Zendaya, he plans to "explore what it means to be an individual with principles in a corrupt world."

The gritty high school drama quickly established itself as a harrowing hour of television in its first season, tracing the story of a spiraling teen addict and her classmates at East Highland High. Addiction, trauma, identity, abuse, and loss were just a handful of the themes addressed in the first two seasons, and now corruption joins the mix. How can one high school contain so much chaos? According to Euphoria costume designer Heidi Bivens, it may not need to.

Bivens previously hinted that the third season would take place years after the second. "I'm really excited to read the scripts," she told Vogue earlier this year. "There is talk of it being approximately five years in the future, and that they're not in high school anymore."

Marcell Rev/HBO Zendaya in 'Euphoria' season 2 on HBO

This certainly lines up with Zendaya's ambitions to leave high school behind. Her portrayal of Rue made her the youngest actress to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series around the same time that she was on the big screen as Peter Parker's teenage love interest in Tom Holland's Spider-Man trilogy. Now, the 26-year-old is looking to branch out.

"From a character perspective, I want to find things that will push me," she told Elle. "As I get older, you know, I can't play a teenager for the rest of my life."

Following the excruciating climax of season 2, which saw Rue hitting rock bottom after making a desperate attempt to escape the consequences of her relapse, Zendaya told EW that she has hope for her character's future.​​ "We can't leave her here," she said. "It's really important that there's light at the end of the tunnel for her, because I think she has a lot of beauty inside of her. Whether or not she quite sees that yet is her own thing."

A time jump is just one of the many changes that Euphoria season 3 would have to address. Barbie Ferreira, for example, announced a "teary-eyed goodbye" to her character Kat Hernandez last summer. And now the show must grapple with the unexpected death of Angus Cloud, who played the sensitive drug dealer Fezco.

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