The Idol on HBO: Everything We Know About the Salacious Series

The Idol was the most controversial show in town before it even got a premiere date, but maybe that's how the creators like it. After all, the steamy new HBO series is being billed as a toxic love story from the “sick and twisted minds” of The Weeknd (born Abel Tesfaye) and Sam Levinson, the latter being the nepo-baby son of Barry Levinson who created Euphoria and directed Malcolm & Marie.

So what's all the fuss about? Here's everything we know (and have heard) about the series:

What’s it about?

After her last tour is cut short by a nervous breakdown, the up-and-coming pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) falls under the influence of Tedros, a shadowy nightclub impresario (The Weeknd). 

Who else is in the cast?

Oh, it's stacked. Dan Levy, Hari Nef, Hank Azaria, Troye Sivan, Jennie from Blackpink, Suzanna Son, Rachel Sennott, Jane Adams, Moses Sumney, Eli Roth, Mike Dean, Karl Glusman, and the late Anne Heche are all listed on the show's IMDb page, though apparently, some roles that were shot ended up being scrapped from the final version. 

Why are people skeptical?

Levinson was already a, let's say, questionable figure in the HBO-verse, having run the Euphoria set somewhat chaotically. He wrote every episode himself (to the chagrin of Barbie Ferreira) and is alleged to be kind of a control enthusiast, hovering somewhere between auteur and nightmare. So it came as a surprise, maybe, but not a shock when Rolling Stone published a bombshell article about The Idol being an expensive mess.

The key takeaways: Levinson halted production after 80% of the planned series had been shot, scrapped everything, fired the director Amy Seimetz and took over, ballooning the budget and throwing production into chaos. The Weeknd was busy with his music career but apparently wanted more of the spotlight, Levinson made last-minute changes to every script (this causes huge production delays and is super expensive in the industry), people were hired and fired quickly and without notice, and the sex scenes…are gonna be controversial. Multiple insiders who spoke to RS called the original version of the story a “satire” of exploitation in Hollywood but fear that the finished product will just be plain exploitative. One telling detail is that while Levinson was busy with Euphoria for much of the early days of shooting, he did apparently show up to watch Lily-Rose Depp's first sex scene.

The Weeknd then responded to the article in a way that made people really scratch their heads. In the Rolling Stone article, sources claimed the show was overhauled because the singer felt it was too focused on the “female perspective.”