Zendaya reportedly signed a huge new deal with HBO before the star begins filming Euphoria Season 3.
Season 2 of HBO’s hit series, Euphoria, was a major hit when it was released in 2022. However, despite its success, it was recently revealed that Season 3 won’t begin filming until the later months of 2023, making it unlikely for fans to see what will come next until late 2024.
Zendaya, the series lead, was already one of the most well-known and popular actresses before her work as Rue Bennett in Euphoria, but now she has grown into one of the biggest stars in the world, and HBO has taken notice.
Zendaya’s New HBO Contract for Euphoria Season 3
According to Matthew Belloni's latest "What I'm Hearing..." newsletter for Puck, Zendaya recently came to an agreement with HBO on a new contract for her work on Euphoria.
Belloni called Zendaya's new deal "a big re-negotiation," and even alluded that the star could be making somewhere close to $1M per episode of Euphoria when Season 3 rolls around:
"I’m told Zendaya just closed a big re-negotiation on HBO’s 'Euphoria' that likely puts her close to that club."
The "club" that Belloni is referring to is the current list of actors who have reached or surpassed the threshold of $1M per episode of the TV show they star in, which includes names such as Kevin Costner, John Krasinski, Michael Keaton, Harrison Ford, and Helen Mirren.
For reference, according to Belloni, Costner is making around $1.2M per episode of Paramount's Yellowstone while Krasinski is reportedly netting $2M per episode of Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan.
It is also notable to mention that Zendaya's contract being around the $1M per episode mark is even more impressive in the current state of television because actors' salaries for TV projects are currently lower than in the past. According to Belloni, one of his sources revealed that "'$850,000 is the new $1 million."
As far as the actual Season 3 of Euphoria goes, actor Colman Domingo, who plays Ali in the show, recently spoke in an interview with hypebae about what can be expected in the next installment.
Domingo revealed that he recently "had some really deep conversations" with the show's director, Sam Levinson. The actor stated that the director specifically talked about the "arcs of all the characters" and even teased that Season 3 will contain some "really big swings:"
"Sam Levinson and I had some really deep conversations as of last weekend actually. Where he’s talking about the arcs of all the characters and what he wants to do to expand that, to actually re-examine at times. It’s an organism and he wants it to keep shifting it in many ways and I think he’s going to take some really big swings actually with Season 3."
The Value of a Star Like Zendaya
HBO is obviously extremely confident in having a star such as Zendaya lead one of their biggest projects. For her to be in the same conversation as names like Kevin Costner and Helen Mirren proves just how much the studio understands her importance to the series and the way that she connects with fans.
It would be a lie to say that Zendaya is Euphoria's only star, as the show has really pushed some other actors into the spotlight like Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, and Sydney Sweeney. However, at the end of the day, Zendaya is still the series lead and is by far the biggest name of the entire cast.
Due to the popularity of both the show and its lead actress, HBO likely allowed Zendaya to have a decent amount of freedom when it came to negotiations. Because of how important she is to the series, the studio was more than likely willing to pay her a large amount of money and still be satisfied.
Season 3 of Euphoria is set to begin filming in late 2023.
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