Labrinth has revealed he quit the hit HBO series Euphoria after the rising popularity of the show and its cast caused him to be 'treated like s***' and feel 'disposable'. The singer-songwriter, 37, had been responsible for the show's signature score—blending pop, R&B, electronic, hip-hop and soul—since the very first season.
A four-time Emmy nominee for his work on the show, he won the Outstanding Music and Lyrics award in 2020 for the haunting season one finale track, All for Us. As well as collaborating with lead star Zendaya to write tracks I'm Tired and Elliot's Song, his track Never Felt So Alone, with Billie Eilish, earned him a Grammy nomination in 2024. However, his music does not feature in the currently airing third and final season of the drama, with Labrinth publicly cutting ties with the show in several expletive-laden statements that suggested behind-the-scenes tension.
Creative Split and Cast Egos
In a new interview with GQ Magazine, Labrinth opened up on the reasons for his exit from Euphoria, stating that it was down to a creative split between him and show creator Sam Levinson and suggesting the rising egos amongst the star-studded cast were also at fault. HBO revealed last summer the Jealous hitmaker would return to compose the music for the eagerly anticipated third season with legendary composer Hans Zimmer, who stated that Labrinth had 'shaped the show's identity'. However, last month Labrinth unexpectedly unleashed a furious social media tirade targeting both the entertainment industry and the show itself.
First directing his ire at his record label—who also releases the Euphoria soundtrack—he wrote: 'I'm done with this industry. F*** Columbia' before taking aim at the show by adding: 'Double f*** Euphoria. I'm out. Thank you and good night x.' While he later deleted the expletive-heavy statement, earlier this month he confirmed his music would not feature in the third season, saying he would not allow himself to be lied to or treated poorly. 'People will comfortably lie in this industry and still call themselves honest people,' he wrote. 'So no cap, I decided to remove whatever music I had in [Euphoria]. 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 s***.'
Labrinth's Perspective
In his interview with GQ, Labrinth admitted that his social media posts were 'out of character' and stressed: 'I've never done that in my career.' He explained that he'd wanted to set the record straight because of all the rumours flying that he had been fired, and wanted to make it clear that 'this has got nothing to do with me getting pushed out or thrown out' but had been his own decision. While he also wanted to make it known that his exit had nothing to do with Hans Zimmer's involvement making him feel sidelined, insisting that he was fine with his involvement being reduced from the first two seasons and that 'being disposable was normal in this industry'.
When asked what made him decide to walk away, Labrinth instead explained that he'd no longer felt creatively respected by creator Sam Levinson, adding the show had changed from the 'raw energy' and 'no expectations' of the first season. 'The industry in general plays [on] hierarchy, it plays [on] desperation, plays egos, it plays little man, big man, all this kind of stuff,' he said. 'And I'm like, if we are creating, none of those words should be in our room.'
He alluded to the rising stardom of several of the cast, with the likes of Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney and Hunter Schafer going from relatively unknown actors when they started on the show in 2019 to bona fide Hollywood film stars. Labrinth described the rise of success of some of the cast as 'more red Skittles separated from the rest of the bunch' and that it caused his relationship with them to crumble, describing how people began 'acting funny' with him. 'In the first season, nobody had an agent, nobody had a manager. And then [by the] second season, there was more Winnebagos,' he explained. 'Everybody's slowly turning into their own Louis Vuitton Bag: you have more popularity, more people are saying your name, so you can now treat everyone like s**t. 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. It felt like I had offended people for no reason.'
The artist admitted he ended up feeling that his involvement had become 'very disposable', but that no one was being open about it and made the decision to step away. 'So for me it was like, Okay, cool. I know this is done, for me,' he said. 'I think my involvement was very disposable and it was approached in that way—but not communicated.' Yet despite admitting 'it's sad that we've come to this place', Labrinth insisted that there were no hard feelings with Sam Levinson, who he hailed as 'a genius, in that he knows how to put all the right people together, and I don't think he gets credit for that.' He stressed: 'I've left him to say what he needs to say. That's kind of neither here nor there for me… It's not my show.'
Sam Levinson's Response and Show's Reception
Asked about what happened with Labrinth by Rolling Stone earlier this month, Sam Levinson said he didn't know, but praised the musician as 'an incredible collaborator… who really built the foundation of the sound of Euphoria.' However, he suggested that the pair had creatively split because he had wanted to go in a different direction for the third season's soundtrack, saying: 'I was less interested in needle drops and more interested in something that guided us through this world… I wanted to lean into an old-fashioned Hollywood Western score.' Yet GQ revealed that Labrinth played them several unreleased tracks he'd written, with one sounding straight out of a Western soundtrack, as he 'cracked a cheeky smile'.
So far, the latest season of Euphoria has failed to live up to its predecessors, despite seeing the return of its star-studded cast, including Zendaya, Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, Hunter Schafer, Alexa Demie, Dominic Fike and Maude Apatow. Since landing on the box in 2019, the show has been famed for breaking boundaries with its graphic portrayal of teenage drug use, sex and violence. However, viewers have now claimed that creator Sam Levinson's 'disturbing' and 'misogynistic' storylines for the new season have 'lost the plot'. Ahead of its premiere, the third season was torched with early reviews, with the show being labelled as an 'unhinged disaster' yet 'pretty uneventful.' The season currently holds a 46 percent 'rotten' rating on reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, in comparison to season one and two's 80 and 78 percent 'fresh' score.
Viewers have been left disturbed by the third season's heavy focus on sex work and fetish roleplay, with Sydney Sweeney being accused of 'sexualising infancy' over scenes of her character Cassie shooting OnlyFans content as an adult baby. Fans have also switched off after having their stomach turned by the amount of disturbing and disgusting content so far, such as frequent scenes revolving around defecation and gore. Brutal reviews have said the new series has an over-reliance on 'shock value' elements such as nudity and sexuality rather than developing decent storylines. Lauren Samer from the New York Post labeled the third season—which has a five-year time jump—as 'Breaking Bad meets Looney Tunes.' 'In the first two seasons, the show's strength was how it dug into these characters' lives. The plot got wild, but it was anchored by human drama. Now, as we find them as adults, it would be more compelling to see them struggle because of their flaws. Instead, many of them struggle because random criminal henchmen are after them.' While the BBC's Caryn James gave the first three episodes two out of five stars and declared: 'Euphoria has become a series with very little to say, none of it very audacious or compelling.'
