The long‑awaited third season of Sam Levinson’s Euphoria returned with a somber opening, as an in memoriam card honoring Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy, The Last Ship) appeared before the episode began. According to Deadline, the tribute included Dane’s photo and life dates, echoing the platform’s earlier remembrance for Angus Cloud (North Hollywood, The Line), whose death in 2023 deeply affected the cast and creative team.

Following the episode’s credits, viewers were met with additional dedications to Dane, Cloud and producer Kevin Turen (Euphoria, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), a sequence Deadline notes mirrors the network’s previous memorials for cast members who passed away during production. The acknowledgments closed out a premiere shaped by loss and reflection.

During a recent screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre, Levinson addressed the emotional weight behind the new season. As Deadline reports, the creator explained that the long gap between Seasons Two and Three was not only due to industry strikes and cast scheduling challenges but also the creative responsibility of honoring those the show lost. “Some people ask why it took so long between seasons two and three,” Levinson said. “There were obvious factors — the strikes, trying to make a schedule work with our very in‑demand cast, but the real time was in trying to figure out how to find a way to pay respect to those who we lost.”

Cloud, who portrayed Fezco in the first two seasons, died at age 25 from “acute intoxication” in Oakland, California. Deadline also recounts that Turen, a longtime collaborator of Levinson’s, died unexpectedly a month later at age 44. Dane, who returned to film scenes for Season Three, passed away in February from respiratory failure with ALS listed as a contributing cause.

Although Dane’s character Cal Jacobs does not appear in the premiere, Levinson told Extra — as cited by Deadline — that he adjusted scenes in real time to accommodate the actor’s health. “He showed up and I could tell he had a slight slur in his voice… I said, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll just put, like, five beer bottles in front of you and you’ve been drinking all night.’ He was like, ‘Perfect, perfect.’”

The premiere also follows Rue (Zendaya, Dune, Challengers) as she reconnects with Lexi, played by Maude Apatow (The King of Staten Island, Hollywood) in Los Angeles, where Lexi now works as an assistant to a powerful TV executive played by Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino). According to Deadline, Rue encourages Lexi to reach out to Fez, despite the character serving a 30‑year prison sentence in the show’s canon. Levinson told Entertainment Weekly — again referenced by Deadline — that keeping Fez alive in the story was a personal choice: “I fought very hard to keep him clean when he was alive, and losing him was really tough… I felt like if I couldn’t keep him alive in life, then I could in the show.”