Every question you have about Euphoria season 2, answered

In a nutshell:

Sam Levinson’s groundbreaking drama about teenagers grappling with their sexuality, addiction issues and heartbreak (which earned Zendaya an Emmy in 2020) is finally returning to screens.

On 23 November, HBO released the first official teaser for the show’s second instalment. It opens with Zendaya in character as Rue, lying on her bed and singing along to Frank Sinatra’s “Call Me Irresponsible”. She dances through her house until her sister Gia (Storm Reid) asks, “Are you high?” There’s also footage of smoke-filled parties; Cassie (Sydney Sweeney) presenting Maddy (Alexa Demie) with a birthday cake; the pair posing for pictures with Kat (Barbie Ferreira); what appears to be a police raid; and someone grabbing Rue from behind and dragging her away. “When you’re younger, everything feels so permanent,” she says in a wistful voiceover. “But, as you get older, you begin to realise nothing is and everyone you love can drift away.”

Alongside Zendaya, Storm Reid, Sydney Sweeney, Alexa Demie and Barbie Ferreira, there’s Hunter Schafer as the ethereal Jules, Maude Apatow as the straight-laced Lexi, Jacob Elordi as the sociopathic Nate and Angus Cloud as the lovable drug dealer Fezco – all of whom appear in the season two teaser. According to Deadline, there will also be new additions to the cast: musician Dominic Fike, and actors Minka Kelly and Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr. Fike has told Variety that he will be playing a “degenerate” and “homie” of Rue and Jules. “I don’t have to do much acting,” he said. “He’s exactly like me. It’s shit I would say and shit I would do.”

Euphoria’s second season is expected to dive into the fallout after Rue and Jules parted ways at the end of season one, leading the former to relapse. When Zendaya was interviewed in the October 2021 issue of British Vogue, she was in the midst of gruelling night shoots for the show. Of Rue she said, “I can only understand it to an extent, and then I have to lean on Sam [Levinson]. He was an addict for many years as a teenager. And he’s been clean since he was 19 years old. That’s the thing that makes me hopeful. When we have all this really dark shit – especially this season breaks my heart for Rue – there’s a glimmer of hope because I know that she is a version of him.” Levinson added: “It’s such a brutal season and what I love the most about Z is she’s able to go to those dark places and then as soon as I call cut, she’s hanging out behind the monitor, eating Cheesecake Factory and cracking jokes.”

The show’s first season two teaser revealed that it would begin streaming on 9 January 2022.

Considering that Euphoria first premiered in June 2019, it would be worth rewatching the harrowing and hallucinatory first season, as well as the two special episodes that followed in December 2020 and January 2021. Those keen to see other social media-obsessed high schoolers behaving badly should also binge the Gossip Girl reboot (the second part of its first season is due to land in the UK soon). 

This article was previously translated in Vogue UK.