‘Euphoria’ star Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on the ‘roller-coaster ride’ of season 3

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in ‘Euphoria’ season 3. (Eddy Chen/HBO)

Euphoria is so back.

Sam Levinson’s drama series has finally returned for season 3. Now that we’re two episodes into the third season, viewers are situated in the time jump and have met the many new characters who become part of Rue, Cassie, Nate, Maddy and Jules’ journey.

One of those new characters is Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje [ah’-duh-WAH-lay ah’-kuh-NO-yay ag-BAH-zhay]‘s Alamo, who is Rue’s (Zendaya) new boss. He spoke to ABC Audio about what it was like to join the series in its third season.

“It was really exciting to be invited and to be a part of the journey of Euphoria,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje said. “These performances of this young cast — Zendaya, Alexa Demie, Sydney Sweeney, Jacob Elordi — they were some of the most powerful performances I’ve seen on TV in many years. So the bar was set really high. And I was just happy to come on board and try to be a part of raising that bar.”

Akinnuoye-Agbaje continued, saying fans will be “taken on a roller-coaster ride” over the course of the season.

“We follow these characters that they’ve [grown] to love in high school into the real world and see the cost of some of the choices that they make dabbling on the wrong side of the law, which is the realm in which Alamo lives,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje says.

Above all else, Akinnuoye-Agbaje says season 3 continues to put a spotlight on one of the show’s main themes.

“Most importantly, I think the subject matter that it addresses in this season, as it did in the previous ones, [is] the drug use and the impact of fentanyl on the younger generation,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje said. “It really does spotlight and highlight it in a real way, and I was happy to see that and be a part of that.”

New episodes of Euphoria air Sundays on HBO.