Sam Levinson breaks silence on Labrinth’s comments, as Euphoria season three launches

Euphoria season three has officially lost one of its most iconic elements: The music. It’s now been confirmed that Labrinth won’t be returning for the third season of Euphoria, after previously saying he was “done with this industry” in a very public rant online.

If you somehow missed it, Labrinth went off in an all-caps Instagram post last month, dragging both the show and his label Columbia Records before cutting ties entirely. He said: “F*** COLUMBIA. DOUBLE F*** EUPHORIA. IM OUT.”

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This is kind of a huge deal. Labrinth didn’t just contribute a few track, he basically defined the sound of Euphoria. He was quickly replaced by Hans Zimmer.

What makes this even messier is that Labrinth and creator Sam Levinson were tight. Like, creatively inseparable. Levinson previously gave him free rein to make the show as sonically weird as possible, which is exactly why it worked.

So what actually happened?

Even Levinson doesn’t seem to have a clue. Speaking to Rolling Stone this week, he was asked about the fallout and simply said: “I don’t know.”

He did, however, call Labrinth an “incredible collaborator” and credited him with building the show’s entire sound.

John Salangsang/Shutterstock

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Levinson also hinted that season three is going in a totally different direction anyway, saying the show is moving away from its pop-heavy roots and leaning more into a cinematic, almost Western-style score: “In general, I was less interested in needle drops and more interested in something that guided us through this world.

“They’re out of high school, so the pop roots of it have faded away. At the same time, because of how I imagined it visually, I wanted to lean into an old-fashioned Hollywood Western score.”

Adding to the speculation, people have started connecting dots between Labrinth’s exit and rumours of Zendaya’s tension with Levinson, who worked closely with him on the show’s music.

Shutterstock, Marechal Aurore/ABACA

Nothing’s been confirmed, but given the long history of reported production issues around Euphoria season three, people aren’t exactly shocked something’s gone down.

Oh, and just to make it even weirder? Labrinth and Levinson were literally seen together at Paris Fashion Week right before the rant. Something definitely happened.

Will the show will even feel the same without the music that made it iconic?

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Featured image credit: Shutterstock/John Salangsang, Marechal Aurore