Euphoria came back after more than four years and sounds like a different show. The Season 3 premiere, which aired April 12, drew 8.5 million U.S. viewers in three days across linear and streaming, 44% more than the Season 2 premiere, according to HBO figures reported by Deadline. The second trailer had already set a record with 157 million views in two days.
The new season jumps ahead five years, and Rue (Zendaya) is smuggling fentanyl across the Mexican border for a dealer named Laurie before she switches to working for strip-club magnate Alamo Brown (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), per Deadline’s premiere recap. Creator Sam Levinson has said he wanted to explore “the Wild West of adulthood,” and the look follows suit, with desert landscapes and a genre-hopping mix of crime caper, Western and Hollywood satire.
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The sound followed. Hans Zimmer scored the season, and The Hollywood Reporter calls his work “mighty Morricone-esque.” Levinson told Rolling Stone that Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West partly inspired the music, per The FADER. The opening scene has Rue crossing the desert to Christopher Cross’ “Ride Like the Wind,” a needle drop THR guesses is there because of the lyric about the border of Mexico.
The person missing from the credits is Labrinth, who composed the first two seasons. He and Zimmer were initially set to share the job, but Labrinth left the project in a very public way. He wrote on Instagram that he was “done with this industry,” and later clarified that he had decided to remove whatever music he had in the season:
I left because, last truth, when I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me.
Labrinth, The FADER
He had a reply ready. On premiere night, the day after his Coachella set, Labrinth released “SHUT YOUR DAMN 95.7892,” which the FADER says has an electronic pulse and distorted vocals that sound “very Euphoria.” The FADER’s piece argues the show now has little that feels musically fresh or current, calling Zimmer’s score powerful but “referential and hollow.”
Critics are split on the season itself. Variety calls the first three episodes “entertaining but disjointed” and says Zendaya’s opening border-crossing scene is absorbing, while THR asks whether Levinson’s HBO drama has aged out of relevance, even as it praises Zendaya. Variety also notes the show has endured the deaths of Angus Cloud and Eric Dane since its last season; Dane had finished filming Season 3 before he died earlier this year.
Season 3 has eight episodes, and Deadline says it is likely to be the series’ last, though there is no official word. For music fans, it is a rare TV season whose biggest drama is in the credits. Zendaya also has A24’s The Drama out this month, in our April guide. Another April soundtrack story: Anne Hathaway, FKA twigs and Charli xcx on Mother Mary.
- Premiere
- April 12, 2026, HBO; 8.5 million U.S. viewers in three days (HBO)
- Music
- Score by Hans Zimmer; Labrinth, who scored Seasons 1 and 2, left the project
- Episodes
- Eight in Season 3
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
