Labrinth did not contribute any music to the third season of Euphoria.
The British musician, who wrote the score and several songs for the first two seasons of the HBO drama, appeared to distance himself from the show in a cryptic Instagram post in March in which he wrote “f**k Euphoria” and declared he was “done with this industry”.
The Emmy-winning singer-songwriter deleted the post and declined to expand upon his comments, casting uncertainty over his future with the show.
On Thursday, days before the premiere of season three on Sunday, editors at Rolling Stone and The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Labrinth’s music will not feature in the new series.
Famed Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, who was brought in last year to collaborate with Labrinth, now serves as the show’s sole composer.
When asked what happened, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson told Rolling Stone, “I don’t know. He’s an incredible collaborator and someone who really built the foundation of the sound of Euphoria.”
However, he explained that Zimmer was hired for the third season because “each character’s storyline is like its own film in a way”, and the tone is different because they are now adults, following a five-year time jump between seasons.
“In general, I was less interested in needle drops and more interested in something that guided us through this world,” Levinson noted. “They’re out of high school, so the pop roots of it have faded away. At the same time, because of how I imagined it visually, I wanted to lean into an old-fashioned Hollywood Western score.”
Labrinth, who is set to perform at the Coachella festival in California this weekend, has not yet commented further on the issue.
Zimmer is best known for composing the scores for films such as Interstellar, Gladiator, The Lion King, Inception and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Euphoria, starring Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi, will premiere on Sunday.
