Why Alamo From Euphoria Season 3 Looks So Familiar

Avoid the grotto and stay out of trouble if you haven't seen the season 3 premiere of "Euphoria." Spoilers ahead!

You know the saying "out of the frying pan, into the fire?" Well, in season 3 of Sam Levinson's boundary-shattering HBO series "Euphoria," our protagonist Rue Bennett (Zendaya) is forced to pay off her debt to a seemingly mild-mannered but deeply sinister drug lord named Laurie (Martha Kelly), until Laurie's proverbial frying pan dumps her right into the fire. During a "delivery," so to speak, she meets a different kingpin known as Alamo — played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje — and, upon meeting him, Rue decides she might rather work for him instead.

After enduring a truly frightening "test" of sorts where Alamo shoots an apple off of Rue's head like William Tell, Rue seems to be under Alamo's employ now. But what that means for her future is still in question, and we'll have to see how her dynamic with Alamo unfolds throughout the season. So where have you seen Akinnuoye-Agbaje before? From a classic ABC mystery box series to massive action blockbusters, here's why Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje looks so familiar.

A lot of longtime TV addicts probably know Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje from his, frankly, career-defining turn on "Lost" as Mr. Eko. As a refresher, Mr. Eko pops up in the second season of this series — created by J.J. Abrams and ultimately helmed by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse — after we've already spent a season with castaways from Oceanic Flight 815, who crash on a mysterious desert island and find they're not alone. Mr. Eko was also on the plane, but he was in the tail section that split away, which is why we don't meet him until "Lost" season 2. Unfortunately for Mr. Eko and his fans, he's murdered by the show's famous smoke monster before the series ends (Akinnuoye-Agbaje didn't want to make a long-term commitment to the show, so he and the showrunners agreed to a fairly compact character arc).

Elsewhere on the small screen, Akinnuoye-Agbaje briefly showed up on "Game of Thrones" as Malko, a slave ship captain. He has appeared on shows like "American Odyssey," in a main role on "His Dark Materials" as military force commander Commander Ogunwe, and in the TV movie "Tour de Pharmacy" alongside "Hamilton" veteran Daveed Diggs, Orlando Bloom, and Andy Samberg. But what about Akinnuoye-Agbaje's work on the big screen?

Well, let's get this one out of the way: in 2016, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje appeared in David Ayer's much-maligned take on "Suicide Squad," which was soft-rebooted in James Gunn's 2021 movie "The Suicide Squad." In the original squad line-up, Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays Waylon Jones, also known as Killer Croc. In a 2019 interview with Yahoo Movies UK, he was pretty candid about the likelihood of reprising the role. "I don't think I need to [do it again], to be honest. I did it, I enjoyed it, it bought me a Bentley and I will keep moving on." Fair enough!

Other than that, Akinnuoye-Agbaje has played roles like Heavy Duty in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," Lock-Nah in "The Mummy Returns," Algrim the Strong (and also Kurse) in the widely-disliked Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel "Thor: The Dark World," Virgil Brooks in "Trumbo," and Nash in "Annie." You can see him on "Euphoria" as it airs its third season every Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max.