Euphoria Fans Are Not Holding Back On Hans Zimmer's Season 3 Score
by Nina Starner · /FilmA lot has changed in the third season of "Euphoria," which may well be its last outing. That includes the music. While Labrinth handled all of the show's music for the first two seasons, Oscar winner Hans Zimmer was the sole composer for Season 3, and fans have some feelings about it after the show's third episode.
Generally, people ... don't like it all that much! On the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), people were making jokes about how they didn't feel like the music actually matches the show's content. As user @wishfu1l put it, "what is going with ['Euphoria's'] soundtrack this season why are we in a jungle." @1800clockit was a little more blunt, writing that "Hans Zimmer going to hell for this damn score" over a clip of Alexa Demie's Maddy Perez walking into Nate Jacobs' (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie Howard's (Sydney Sweeney) doomed wedding as the ex-girlfriend of the groom and ex-best friend of the bride. (Actually, @1800clockit was on a roll — they also posted a clip of a still image of Joni Mitchell with an iPhone ringtone laid over it, writing, "trying to watch ['Euphoria'] but the hans zimmer score genuinely sounds like this."
@ripleyesque might have the best take on this, referencing Mike White's hit sort-of anthology for HBO: "they told hans zimmer [the soundtrack] was for an HBO show and he assumed it was ['White Lotus']." That's honestly the funniest take I've seen, but people have a point. Labrinth's music throughout the first two seasons of "Euphoria" helped characterize the entire series, but according to the musician himself, he bowed out because he couldn't deal with the work environment anymore.
Labrinth made a pretty shocking statement about leaving Euphoria
As far as Labrinth is concerned, he's had a lot to say about his departure from "Euphoria" — including a social media diatribe.
"People will comfortably lie in this industry and still call themselves honest people," Labrinth said on an Instagram story posted before the "Euphoria" Season 3 premiere (via Deadline). "So no cap, I decided to remove whatever music I had in it. I spoke to HBO, as far as I know, we are cool. I left because, last truth, when I work for someone, their vision is paramount to me. But I don't let people treat me like sh**." This entire statement, such as it is, followed another Instagram story detailed by Deadline where Labrinth said he was leaving the music industry for good.
Then, on April 21, 2026, Labrinth spoke to GQ about the entire ordeal. Despite saying he'd seen some of the Season 3 episodes of "Euphoria" and liked them, Labrinth said he felt as if the entire situation crumbled beneath his feet. "I just felt that the family and the fluidity started to deteriorate, and the creative camaraderie started to dissipate, and it felt like it was happening for no reason," he said. "It felt like I had offended people for no reason. And I'm very open with people. If I feel like I've offended them or there's an energy, I just speak to them about it: Shall we put it to bed?"
Labrinth went on to say that while he tried to respectfully communicate with unnamed people, it didn't work. "So for me it was like, Okay, cool. I know this is done, for me," he concluded. "I think my involvement was very disposable and it was approached in that way — but not communicated."
Sam Levinson says a Western score by Hans Zimmer was a better fit for Season 3 of Euphoria
Unsurprisingly, Sam Levinson, the controversy-ridden creator of Euphoria," presented a completely take than Labrinth did — and it was pretty self-aggrandizing. I'll let him explain for himself as he did in Rolling Stone, because I can't possibly embellish this:
"On 'Euphoria,' each character's storyline is like its own film in a way. In general, I was less interested in needle drops and more interested in something that guided us through this world.... They're out of high school, so the pop roots of it have faded away. I see them in these landscapes, dealing with good and evil, the choices you make, the consequences, and the freedom of being older. How I imagined it visually, I wanted to lean into an old-fashioned Hollywood Western score."
Levinson also said that some of Zimmer's specific previous work inspired him while he worked on "Euphoria" Season 3 — including "True Romance" and "Interstellar," but for very different reasons. "There was something about the Americana of 'True Romance' ... It felt like driving across the country and traversing time," Levinson noted. "Then 'Interstellar' had this wonderment and an underlying religious quality to it that I felt worked well for this season."
He also, during a meeting with Zimmer, noted that he had a poster of "Once Upon a Time in the West" on his wall and had an idea. "I said, 'Wouldn't it be exciting to find out what your version of Once Upon a Time in the West would be? ... Because I mean it. I want a Western score,'" Levinson says. "And he got excited." The rest, I guess, is history ... and "Euphoria" Season 3 is streaming with its new soundtrack now.