Zendaya was spotted on the Palmdale, California set of Euphoria, confirming for fans that season three filming is finally underway.
The Dune: Part 2 star, 28, stepped back into the role of Rue Bennett as she filmed with co-star Alexa Demie, 34.
The actresses were filming at a strip club called The Silver Slipper that was built just for the production as well as in a diner.
Zendaya wore two looks in the photos from the set. One was a maroon jacket over a white t-shirt with black track pants.
In the other ensemble, Tom Holland‘s fiancée wore a green jacket over a white t-shirt with blue pants.
Season three of the popular HBO show will hit the streamer in 2026 after delays due to the busy shooting schedules of Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi as well as the SAG and WGA strikes.
Zendaya is back on set as Rue and was spotted filming a late-night scene for “Euphoria” in Los Angeles, where the set, resembling a strip club, was illuminated with neon lights
Euphoria, a gritty tale about a teen addict and her peers as they navigate through strains of love, loss, sex, and addiction premiered its first season on HBO in June 2019.
Zendaya looked quite tired in the shots from set, calling to mind the controversy about insanely long shooting days from 2022.
Cast members criticized show creator Sam Levinson for grueling long days of production lasting 15 to 17 hours.
They accused Levinson of showing up for the day without a list of shots he wanted to get that day already formulated, making the day even longer.
Shooting the New Year’s Eve party for the season two premiere was particularly rough, with filming going on for more than a week from dusk to dawn.
‘We shot all night, so we would start at 6pm and go until whenever the sun would rise—5am—and we were so tired,’ Maude Apatow told Thrillist. ‘We were trying so hard to stay awake!’
‘The thing is, we do it for so long,’ Jacob Eloridi said. ‘We shot that party for over a week, so very quickly it’s like being in Hell.
‘It’s like being in a party that you don’t want to be in. At all. And you can’t wait [to leave].’
It’s been 3 years since she stepped into her iconic role as Rue Bennett in Euphoria Season 2, and finally production has began on the long awaited 3rd season
The multitalented actress was pictured back in costume for the first time on Thursday as cameras rolled on location near Palmdale, CA
The team behind the series built an elaborate set which included a strip club named The Silver Slipper
Levinson was also accused of sidelining some cast members in favor of his favorite actors.
Barbie Ferreira’s character Kat Hernandez had a major storyline in season one and was sidelined in season two.
That plus the long shooting days led Ferreira to walk off the set twice before quitting the show.
Algee Smith, who played Cassie’s (Sweeney) boyfriend Chris McKay was a major character in season one and in one episode in season two.
‘I’m not even really sure, to be honest with you,’ Smith told The Daily Beast of where McKay’s direction is heading.
‘I think that’s a question we have to ask our creator [Levinson], where he sees it going,’ Smith said prior to being cut from the cast of the show.
The show then faced a bout of delays due to the Covid pandemic, resulting in the second season premiering in January 2022.
When Euphoria resumed shooting its second season after the pandemic, the storyline underwent more changes.
While Euphoria was on hiatus, Zendaya and her longtime boyfriend Tom Holland got engaged
‘There are very few things that remain in the version you’re now seeing,’ Zendaya said. The things that didn’t make it definitely needed to die.”
While Euphoria was renewed for a third season the month after season two came out, production was halted againdue to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, and the unexpected deaths of cast member Angus Cloud and executive producer Kevin Turen.
Leading lady Zendaya previously confirmed that the show will be doing a time jump with the storyline, taking the core group to life after high school.
‘It’s important because there’s only so much high school drama you can deal with,’ the actress said on Entertainment Weekly’s The Awardist.
‘I don’t actually know much about what is happening,’ she said at the time, despite being an executive producer on the series.
‘I don’t quite know exactly what the season is going to look like, but I do know that the time jump is happening.’
The actress, who has played teenager Rue, a high schooler who struggles with drug addiction, sounded as excited as fans to learn what’s in store for the young group now that they’re officially adults.
‘It will be fascinating to see and understand these characters outside of the context of high school and how all the stuff that we saw when they were kids and they were in high school affects the adulthood they have and who they become in a much bigger world,’ the Oakland, California, native said.