‘Euphoria’ Director Sam Levinson Credits Drake for Being Early ‘Champion’ & Details OVO Rapper’s Role as Executive Producer
Levinson also confirmed that the HBO series has concluded.
Euphoria came to a close with its season three finale on Sunday (May 31), and the HBO show’s creator, Sam Levinson, joined The New York Times’ Popcast to discuss the series finale, as well as Drake’s involvement as an executive producer.
At the tail-end of the 100-minute conversation, Levinson credited Drake for being an early champion of the show, and his co-sign held a lot of weight with HBO executives behind the scenes prior to season one’s airing in 2019.
“Drake had gotten a hold of the scripts very early on in the process,” he said. “This is when HBO was, you know, they still weren’t sure about the show. We were pushing some boundaries. He said, ‘I want to come on as a producer, I want to come on as an EP.’ He brought a level of confidence to HBO that I will forever be grateful for. I think that they couldn’t believe that Drake was coming on.”
Levinson, who serves as the creator, director, writer and producer of Euphoria, explained that Drake was more of an executive producer in the role of promoting and marketing the show, rather than giving out suggestions for the script.
“He was more involved in promotional and marketing aspects of it as opposed to another producer is giving notes,” Levinson added. “You need your champions to give other people confidence and he was a champion.”
Drake was announced as an executive producer for Euphoria back in 2018. The script striking a nerve with him isn’t much of a surprise, as he came up as an actor, starring in Degrassi before his rap fame. The OVO boss also served as an executive producer for Netflix’s Top Boy reboot in 2019.
After seven years, Levinson also confirmed that Euphoria has ended following season three’s 90-minute season finale on Sunday. Variety later confirmed with a spokesperson for HBO that the show is over.
Euphoria crossed over into the rap world in 2024 when it was caught in the midst of the Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud, as K. Dot titled one of his Drizzy disses after the HBO show. However, that didn’t leave much of a mark in Levinson’s universe since he wasn’t engaging with much pop culture at the time, instead focusing on writing the script for season three.
Drake is riding high following the release of his ICEMAN album, which spends a second week atop the Billboard 200 after earning 225,000 equivalent album units in the United States in the week ending May 28.
Watch the interview with Sam Levinson below.
