HBO's Highly Anticipated and Controversial 'The Idol' Finally Has A Release Date

Lifestyle, Culture

HBO’s Highly Anticipated and Controversial ‘The Idol’ Finally Has A Release Date

By Charmaine Tan
April 18, 2023

The Idol by Euphoria’s Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye is set to premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The teasing for HBO’s latest series The Idol has come a long way. Since its first announcement in July 2021, the cast and crew have undergone multiple changes, last April marking the departure of director Amy Seimetz and the entry of Euphoria‘s Sam Levinson, along with an entire overhaul of the direction of the show.

After a series of production delays, intense but ambiguous trailers and controversial episodes, the show — co-written by Levinson, Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and Reza Fahim — finally firms up its premiere date for 5 June, as part of the upcoming Cannes Film Festival.

Even if you aren’t a fan of Euphoria, you would have heard of this A24-backed project since it features a heavily star-studded cast, including co-creator Tesfaye, Lily-Rose Depp, Troye Sivan, Hari Nef, and even Blackpink’s Jennie — who makes her acting debut as Jennie Ruby Jane, and is expected to be at the Cannes premiere next month.

Dubbed the “sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood” by HBO, the series follows pop superstar Jocelyn’s (Depp) navigation of the dark underbelly of the music industry, before experiencing a “romantic awakening” after meeting Tedros (Tesfaye), a mysterious owner of a popular L.A. nightclub who secretly runs a cult.

While HBO seems to have a penchant for producing polarizing and provocative shows like House of the Dragons and Succession, an exposé by Rolling Stone earlier in March spelled something different for Levinson’s new creation — billed as “a darker, crazier, and more risqué version of Euphoria”. A source on the show told the media outlet that the show “went from satire to the thing it was satirizing,” while another described Levinson’s vision for the series as “like any rape fantasy that any toxic man would have in the show — and then the woman comes back for more because it makes her music better”.

While a far cry from the initial story of “a troubled starlet falling victim to a predatory industry figure and fighting to reclaim her own agency”, the buzz for this mysterious work is undeniably alive and growing. So whether you are going to watch the show out of sheer curiousity, a genuine interest for the plot or not at all, here’s a heads-up that things are about to get extra gritty and grimy in all the conversations about to be stirred up by The Idol.