Angus Cloud was Euphoria season 3’s backbone for Death to keep him sober

“Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson focused much of the HBO series’ third season on Fezco, the character played by Angus Cloud, before the actor’s death from a fentanyl overdose in July 2023.

In an interview with the New York Timesspoke to Levinson about a draft of Season 3 that he wrote before the WGA strike began in May 2023. “Angus was the backbone of that season. I even talked to him about it because I wanted him to stay clean,” he said. “So I invited him over and told him what the plans were for the character. I would say, look, he’s been in prison for a few years, so you need to get that prison body under a yoke. Because I wanted him to start training and start taking care of himself.”

Levinson also revealed that in his original scripts for season 1, Fez died at the end, but he felt he “couldn’t do it”, saying that Cloud “needed something to look forward to or he would get lost in the world.”

“And when I was writing Season 2 and I got to the end, I thought, OK, this time I have to do it: Fezco is going to die,” Levinson continued. “And as we got closer, I just couldn’t do it anymore, especially with everything we’d been through. I wanted him to have something to hold on to, a tangible goal for the future.”

Levinson spoke at the red carpet premiere for season 3 Variety about Cloud’s death. “Losing Angus was very difficult for us as a production. I loved him very much,” he said. “I fought hard to keep them clean.” In the version of the season that premieres Sunday, Levinson wanted to “preserve [Cloud] alive” in the story, and wrote the episodes in his honor.