A couple of years and several behind-the-scenes shake-ups later, the Weeknd’s new HBO show, The Idol, continues to generate controversy. Last year, HBO released a new teaser trailer, and it was everything that we more or less expected. The Idol, according to a teaser, comes “from the gutters of Hollywood” and is created by Abel Tesfaye (the Weeknd) and Euphoria’s Sam Levinson. Originally, The Girlfriend Experience’s Amy Seimetz was signed on to direct, but she left the show after 80 percent of it was in the can. Then Levinson, fresh off a polarizing Euphoria season two, came in and allegedly reshot the whole dang thing.
A report from Rolling Stone alleges that The Idol changed dramatically when Levinson became the guiding hand. “It was a show about a woman who was finding herself sexually,” said one anonymous crew member, “turned into a show about a man who gets to abuse this woman and she loves it.”
Where can I watch the latest trailer?
The latest trailer frames the show as a classic tale of the American Dream gone wrong. “Rags to riches,” the Weeknd’s cultish character Tedros says in voice-over. “Trailers to mansions. You are fucking Jocelyn. Just be you.” Rachel Sennott calls a spade a spade. “He’s brainwashed her,” she points out over a shot of the Weeknd washing Depp’s hair.
The Idol appears to be heavily inspired by Britney Spears’s aughts-era headlines based on the last teaser. “When was the last truly fucking nasty, nasty, bad pop girl?” Troye Sivan asks. His question is answered with a “Gimme More” needle drop. It’s Britney, bitch. The bop soundtracks Lily-Rose Depp’s bender through the clubs and streets of L.A. Her character’s name, Jocelyn, is illuminated in neon lights. “You got the best job in the world,” The Weeknd, her paramour and enabler, says. “You should be having way more fun.” Their version of fun appears to be some sort of BDSM play while recording music. Dan Levy, one of her reps, is the only one trying to steer the ship. “The press has been brutal,” he tells the team. If it’s on the level of aughts-era Spears, then Jocelyn’s people surely have a code red on their hands.
Who stars in The Idol?
In addition to Tesfaye and Lily-Rose Depp, the series stars a huge cast of singers and actors, including Troye Sivan, Blackpink’s Jennie Ruby Jane, Dan Levy, Suzanna Son, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Hari Nef, and Nico Hiraga. Anne Heche, who died recently in a car crash, is not listed in the credits in the trailer despite being previously announced to star. Per the Rolling Stone article, much of the cast brought on during the Seimetz administration was not brought back under Levinson. Levinson also added people like Rachel Sennott and Hank Azaria.
What is The Idol about?
The show follows Depp as a pop star lured into a cult led by Tesfaye’s character and features all the Levinson trademarks: beautiful young people, drugs, mood lighting. “Los Angeles is where all the monsters of the world come to gather,” Tesfaye tells Depp in a teaser that shows him doing drugs and having sex. “Trust no one.”
The Rolling Stone article claims the show may be about nothing at all, as a chaotic shooting schedule and endless rewrites have completely obliterated any sense of structure. “It’s almost such an extreme that it’s like, there is no message,” one Idol crew member said. “There is no point. They’re just trying to see how much of a reaction they can get.” The report says the show has descended into a “rape fantasy” full of nudity and sexually explicit scenes. “It went from satire to the thing it was satirizing,” a member of the production team said.
Does The Idol have music?
You know it. The Weeknd released the first song from the show, “Double Fantasy,” on April 21, featuring his friend Future and produced by his friend Metro Boomin, along with his Idol co-star Mike Dean. The Weeknd, Future, and Metro previously debuted the song during Metro’s Coachella set. It’s par for the course for all three artists, which is to say it’s a dark, sleazy earworm. And it comes with a video featuring Lily-Rose Depp and the Weeknd as their Idol characters, dancing in clubs and doing everything just shy of sex that you can put in a music video. (You get one guess as to what the double fantasy in question is.) The Weeknd then collaborated with Madonna and Playboi Carti for “Popular,” the next track released from The Idol Vol. 1 (Music from the HBO Original Series). Once the show started airing, new episodes also meant more new songs, including Depp’s “World Class Sinner / I’m A Freak.”
Has The Idol responded to the Rolling Stone story?
The Weeknd tweeted a response, sharing an almost-minute-long clip of a scene between Tesfaye, Depp, and Levy. In the clip, Tesfaye’s character calls Rolling Stone “a little irrelevant.”
Depp also responded with a statement: “Sam is, for so many reasons, the best director I have ever worked with. Never have I felt more supported or respected in a creative space, my input and opinions more valued. Working with Sam is a true collaboration in every way — it matters to him, more than anything, not only what his actors think about the work, but how we feel performing it.” Depp said Levinson “hires people whose work he esteems and has always created an environment in which I felt seen, heard and appreciated.”
The Weeknd explained his response in a cover story for Vanity Fair out May 16. “I thought the article was ridiculous,” he said. “I wanted to give a ridiculous response to it.” He said he took issue with the framing of the story as, “These are rapists trying to make a rape fantasy.” He also claimed that Seimetz only departed due to her schedule, though she herself did not comment. “I know it’s easy for people to be like, ‘Oh, he wanted to be the star,’” Tesfaye said, but he claimed the show still focused on Depp’s perspective.
Levinson responded to the allegations at a press conference the morning after the show’s Cannes Film Festival premiere. “We know we’re making a show that’s provocative,” he said on May 23. “When my wife read me the article, I looked at her and I said, ‘I think we’re about to have the biggest show of the summer’ … They’re free to write whatever they want. I think my only slight grievance was that they intentionally omitted anything that didn’t fit their narrative. But I think we’ve seen a lot of that lately.”
What does the cast think about the criticism?
Jane Adams, who plays a record label executive, told Vanity Fair that she unapologetically loved the show, despite all of the negative reviews. “These days, to certain people, you almost have to apologize when you dislike something or you love something,” she said. “I don’t really care anymore. That is one good thing about being a gray-haired lady— it’s almost like you get a license to not care.” As for the lead Lily-Rose Depp, she felt that the show was a “really safe creative space” for them and that the set created by Levinson was “conducive to the best work” she’s ever done. “It brought the best out of everyone,” she shared to Vogue Australia. “It’s okay if this show isn’t for everyone and that’s fine – I think all the best art is [polarising]. I’ve never felt more respected and more safe on a set, honestly.” Hank Azaria was really method acting as Jocelyn’s manager when he went on the Today show to echo Depp’s claims that she felt safe on set. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays Jocelyn’s other manager, did not understand how the rumors were spread but reassured that it was a safe environment. She explained to Vulture, “I don’t think there’d be any way possible for them to have gotten the product they did if it was toxic. The cast would have quit and left. That never happened.”
When is The Idol coming out?
The Idol premiered at Cannes Film Festival before its official release on June 4 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max. New episodes air on Sundays at the same time.
Is The Idol coming back for season two?
Maybe. “Page Six” reported on June 15 that there would not be a second season, and that The Idol was always intended to be a limited series. But the same story also quoted an HBO insider who said that the door was “still open,” and HBO itself later tweeted that no decision has been made.
This post has been updated throughout.
