Euphoria Star Barbie Ferreira Not Returning for Season 3

Barbie Ferreira is not returning for the third season of HBO’s Euphoria. On Wednesday, Ferreira posted on her Instagram stories that she was saying goodbye to her character, Kat Hernandez, after four years “of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character”.  In the post, Ferreira shared fan art of her character done by her Euphoria co-star Hunter Schafer, noting that it was her “first Kat fan art”.

“After four years of getting to embody the most special and enigmatic character Kat, I’m having to say a very teary eyed goodbye.” Ferreira wrote. “I hope many of you could see yourself in her like I did and that she brought you joy to see her journey into the character she is today. I put all my care and love into her and I hope you guys could feel it. Love you Katherine Hernandez.”

Ferreira’s Kat quickly became a fan-favorite character in the first season of Euphoria, but when the series returned for its second season, the character was less prominently featured. There were rumors of issues between Ferreira and showrunner Sam Levinson, though Ferreira denied those rumors. Ferreira also reportedly walked off set due to concerns about her character’s direction and also did not attend the Season 2 red carpet.

Series star Zendaya has previously spoken highly of her own working relationship with Levinson.

“Sam is like family to me. I talk to him almost every day and night, every other day,” Zendaya offered. “Sometimes we talk about Euphoria, and sometimes we just talk about life or current events or whatever. So, we got this idea that we could do a movie in quarantine safely with a very small number of people. We used some crew members from Euphoria who obviously didn’t have a job because filming had stopped. I was fascinated with this idea of shooting a film with just two characters. It was like a play. It was challenging for all of us, because it was shot in just one space. Being quarantined together was great in some ways, because it allowed us to workshop and really dig into the material while we were there.”

The second season of Euphoria concluded back in February with the show renewed for Season 3 ahead of the Season 2 finale. HBO describes the series as follows: “Euphoria follows a group of high school students as they navigate love and friendships in a world of drugs, sex, trauma and social media. The series is executive produced by Drake, along with manager Future the Prince. The ensemble cast includes: actor and singer Zendaya, Maude Apatow (Girls), Angus Cloud, Eric Dane, Alexa Demie, Jacob Elordi, Barbie Ferreira, Nika King, Storm Reid, Hunter Schafer, Algee Smith and Sydney Sweeney (Sharp Objects).”

Seasons1 and 2 of Euphoria are now streaming on HBO Max.