Nika King's role as Rue's mom in Euphoria was significantly reduced in the latest season.
Fans eagerly anticipated King's return, only to be let down by the minimal screen time.
The show's creator, Sam Levinson, has made major changes to the series since the first season.
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Nika King hyped up her long-awaited Euphoria comeback…only for her one scene to be cut down drastically.
Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty
The third season of Euphoria has been getting mixed reviews, to say the least.
The show’s creator and producer, Sam Levinson, has made a lot of changes to the show since the first season, which aired back in 2019. This season’s storylines follow the characters after their time in high school, which makes for a big contrast to the series’ former setting.
A lot of characters from the series no longer appear on the show, which includes Nika King, the actress who plays Zendaya’s (Rue) mom in Euphoria.
She made a small appearance in the most recent episode of the show’s Season 3, which she teased all week on her social media pages. However, when the episode finally dropped on Sunday, King saw, along with fans, that her scene was cut down to just one single line.
The 47-year-old took to Instagram after the episode aired to reveal that more dialogue was filmed, but was cut out entirely.
“I just watched the episode that I’ve been promoting all week – and my mom over here is clowning me!” she said to the camera with a laugh.
King went on to say that her mother was laughing at her because “the internet waited all this time for [her] to just say one line.”
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Her mom added, “Three years!” However, fans actually had to wait four years for Season 3, as King’s last appearance in Season 2 aired in 2022.
In the actress’ video, she turned to talk to her mother, who remained off-screen, saying, “You better be glad I have a sense of humor, you better be glad I’ve got thick skin.”
The episode in question, titled, Stand Still and See, sees Rue have a near-death experience after narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a truck. That’s when she heads to a church to find some comfort, and while sitting there, she receives a call from Leslie (King).
During their long, emotional conversation, Rue tells her mother that she’s searching for redemption and gushes over how much she misses her. But, as pointed out by King, the camera only shows Rue’s end of the phone conversation until the camera cuts to her mother on the other end for one line.
Leslie tells Rue that she loves her before the conversation ends, and that is King’s first time onscreen in “Euphoria” since 2022.
Check out some reactions to Nika’s single line after the flip: