HBO's Euphoria has come to an end. The Season 3 finale served as the series conclusion, creator Sam Levinson confirmed Sunday, closing out a seven-year run that spanned three seasons and 26 episodes.
Levinson made the announcement on the New York Times' Popcast, and HBO verified the news to outlets including Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. "In terms of the story that we set out to tell, which is a story about addiction and its consequences, this feels like the end to me," Levinson said, per Deadline.
The finale, titled "In God We Trust," ends with Rue's death from a fentanyl overdose. Levinson framed that conclusion as a deliberate tribute to Angus Cloud, the actor who played Fezco and died on July 31, 2023, at age 25 from an accidental overdose. "It was a way of honoring Angus and saying a prayer for the future," Levinson told Deadline. In a post-episode featurette, he added: "It felt like an honest ending. The honest ending is people like Rue don't make it."
In the closing scene, Ali visits the Miller family farmhouse from the season premiere and tells them Rue is "in a better place," before seeing a vision of her smiling across the dinner table. Cloud's character, Fezco, survived the season and appeared briefly in the finale. Jacob Elordi's character Nate Jacobs had died the previous week in the penultimate episode.
Levinson spoke candidly about the choice to let Rue die, citing the fentanyl crisis. "People relapse. They f--- 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," he said, per People.com. "I can say with absolute certainty that if I was going through what I went through when I was younger now, I wouldn't be here either. There's no reason to sugarcoat it. I wanted to tell this story for Angus and for people who weren't granted a second chance."
The path to Season 3 was marked by significant setbacks. Cloud's death and the 2023 passing of series producer Kevin Turen complicated production, which was further delayed by the Hollywood strikes. More than four years elapsed between Seasons 2 and 3, and reassembling the cast proved logistically difficult as Zendaya and several co-stars had taken on major film projects during the hiatus. Zendaya, who won Emmy Awards for her performance in each of the show's first two seasons, had publicly indicated before the finale that she believed Season 3 would be the last.
Euphoria premiered in 2019, concluded Sunday, and also produced two pandemic bridge specials over its run. In an April interview, Levinson left the door open in measured terms: "I write every season like it's the last. If inspiration strikes and I have an idea, then I'll talk to HBO," he told Variety. For now, the story he set out to tell is complete.
