Euphoria was originally conceived as a dark and twisted high school series, but creator Sam Levinson’s plan for season 3 will turn it into a completely different show. It’s been over two years since Euphoria aired its second season, and ever since then, there’s been rampant speculation about what will become of the long-anticipated third season. There have been all kinds of false claims about cast members refusing to come back and a weirdly specific rumor about a rejected season 3 storyline that would’ve made Rue a private detective and/or a surrogate mother.

To combat these rumors, HBO executive Casey Bloys has discussed Euphoria season 3. For starters, he confirmed that the third season will feature “the same core cast” as the first two seasons. Bloys specifically named Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and Hunter Schafer as four key cast members who will be reprising their roles in season 3. He mentioned that the reason for the delay is that Levinson is trying to figure out where the series should go next. “He doesn’t want to have it in high school anymore,” Bloys teased, so the challenge is deciding on a new setting.

Euphoria Season 3 Being Set Away From High School Changes The Show’s Premise

It’s always been a high school show

Moving Euphoria out of high school and into the real world will completely change the show’s premise. From the very beginning, it’s been defined by its high school setting. It’s all about reckless teenagers and the mistakes they make when they have too much time on their hands and not enough life experience to know any better. The biggest dramatic developments in the series’ storytelling happen at high school parties and the bombshell Euphoria season 2 finale revolved around Lexi’s self-aggrandizing play, which would only get produced by a high school theater troupe.

Zendaya and her co-stars aren’t getting any younger, and they’re all past the point that they’d still be believable as high schoolers, so it makes sense to have a time jump into the future. But if they’re no longer in high school, then it might not feel like Euphoria anymore. If season 3 is taking the characters past high school and into their adult years, then it’ll be a totally different show. It’ll have the same cast playing the same characters, but it might feel more like Desperate Housewives than Euphoria.

Euphoria Season 3’s New Setting Can Work, But Is Still A Massive Risk

Euphoria season 3 risks losing what made the earlier seasons so great

Taking Euphoria season 3 to a new setting isn’t necessarily a death sentence for the series. It could be interesting to explore where these characters end up after they graduate from high school and adjust to adult life. And it’s a bit premature to declare a post-high school season 3 to be the death of the series, because its new setting hasn’t even been decided. According to Bloys, although Levinson knows he wants to take Euphoria beyond high school, he hasn’t yet figured out what the show’s new setting will be.

Bloys says that “where to set it” and “how far in the future to set it” are two decisions that Levinson is still wrestling with. He might decide to just jump a couple of years into the future and show the characters’ college experiences, which would stick pretty closely to Euphoria’s original premise. Alternatively, he might go a decade into the future and show Rue as a drug dealer, Cassie as a single mother, and Nate as a very toxic suburban dad. There are a lot of different possibilities, and a lot of ways it can go wrong.

Why Euphoria Season 3’s Change Is Actually A Good Thing

Season 2 already proved that more of the same doesn’t work

Taking a vastly different approach to Euphoria season 3 could end up being a great approach for the show’s future. Season 2 was met with a much more mixed response than season 1 as it failed to recapture the first season’s magic. The storytelling was much looser, the characterization felt a little less consistent, and the show felt more like a very well-shot soap opera than a true prestige TV drama. Season 2 proved that doing more of the same, attempting to recapture lightning in a bottle, doesn’t work.

Going beyond high school for season 3 gives Euphoria a chance to completely reinvent itself. It’ll be interesting to see where all the fan-favorite characters end up in the real world. The first season of Euphoria grabbed audiences’ attention because it was a big swing. With a new setting and a time jump, season 3 could be just as big of a swing. Season 3 might have just as many problems as season 2, but at least they’ll be different problems.