A new trailer is here for The Idol, a series starring The Weeknd that seems to contain the kind of musings about Tinsel Town sleaze one would expect from one of the R&B singer’s albums.
The show was created by Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and The Weekend himself, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye. The series also stars Lily-Rose Depp.
The show will center around a “self-help guru and leader of a modern-day cult” entering into a complex relationship “with a rising pop idol,” according to the synopsis on IMDb.
The series is being touted as “The sleaziest love story in all of Hollywood.”
The trailer’s arrival on the internet comes just a few hours after The Weeknd premiered it on the big screen at a concert Saturday night in New Jersey, according to Rolling Stone.
Throughout his career, the Canadian singer has created music that paints a rather non-euphoric world of drug-addled corruption, with each album seemingly becoming more self-aware and conceptual than the last. What’s more, The Weeknd has also had a flair for performance art peppered throughout each album cycle, always sporting a new look or gimmick to coincide with the latest record. For instance, in a manner that would probably make Hideo Kojima proud, The Weeknd would show up to public events covered in face bandages for months on end, only for the stunt to culminate in a grotesque plastic surgery-like look — using prosthetics — when the bandages finally came off in the music video for “Save Your Tears.”
In terms of his acting credentials, The Weeknd made a brief but memorable appearance as himself in the acclaimed 2019 Adam Sandler reversal-of-fortune drama Uncut Gems.
Though the trailer did not mention a specific release date, we can’t wait to see how The Weeknd’s creativity further portrays the dark underbelly of glitz and glamour when The Idol comes to HBO Max “soon.”