Last February, the HBO teen drama Euphoria starring Zendaya ended its second season. Being one of the most beloved and popular television shows around right now, fans could not wait until season 3's arrival. However, shortly after season 2 closed, it was confirmed that season 3 would not release until 2024. To many fans' dismay, the wait would likely be at least two years until we saw the troubled teens again. Since then, a few of the Euphoria star actors have attracted some controversial headlines. In July 2022, Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney revealed that her income did not allow her to take a prolonged break from acting. Then in August, Barbie Ferreira, who plays Kat in the series, announced she would not return to the cast for season 3.
After a few drama-less months, February saw a few more Euphoria actors get in trouble with the law. At the start of the month, Chloe Cherry was accused of shoplifting a blouse. Then, one of the show's primary actors got into a sticky situation. On Feb. 20, Angus Cloud, who plays Fez in Euphoria, was accused of doing a hit-and-run with his car in LA. Although he was not an official suspect, police were hoping to track him down to speak with him. With all this turmoil going on with her cast mates, though, lead actress Zendaya received some good news this week.
Zendaya Re-Negotiates Her Deal
On Monday (Feb. 27), Puck's Matthew Belloni reported that Zendaya restructured her contract with the show. For her role as Rue in Euphoria, Zendaya would reportedly receive a huge pay-raise from HBO. Belloni reportedly said that she would be earning practically $1 million per episode from here on out. "I’m told Zendaya just closed a big re-negotiation on HBO’s Euphoria that likely puts her close to that club," Belloni said.
There are only a few actors who earn this much per episode. These include Kevin Costner for the show Yellowstone and John Krasinski for Amazon Prime's Jack Ryan, supposedly. This pay raise surely puts Zendaya in an upper echelon of television series actors, and deservedly so. Euphoria's season 3 is reportedly set to begin filming in 2023. So, Zendaya will soon bring more of her patented star power to HBO in the near future.