More casting news for The White Lotus Season Three has been shared and it sounds like the cast is as stacked as Season Two was.
From what we’ve heard so far, they’ve got some ‘yuge plans in place — including the season’s setting, juicy plot hints, and a star-studded cast confirmed!
The show’s creator Mike White has been heavily under wraps on giving any goss for the upcoming season, but he has promised it’s going to be “a supersized White Lotus“.
“It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier. I don’t know what people will think, but I am super excited, so at least for my own barometer, that’s a good thing … I’m super excited about the content of the season,” White confirmed excitedly.
White’s cheeky tea spill about season three comes after HBO’s vice president of programming Francesca Orsi confirmed a third season in 2023.
“Reflecting on The White Lotus‘ humble, run-and-gun origin as a contained pandemic production, it’s impossible not to be awestruck by how [White] orchestrated one of the buzziest and most critically acclaimed shows,” Orsi said, per Variety.
Orsi added the show had reached “new heights” in Season Two.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled to get the chance to collaborate on a third season together.”
Here’s everything we’ve learned so far about The White Lotus Season Three.
Who will star in The White Lotus Season Three?
The latest big name to be added to the cast is BLACKPINK singer Lisa, per Variety. Her role is currently under wraps, but we’re stoked to hear of her acting debut!
She is the second member of the band to star in an HBO series, the other being Jennie (credited as Jennie Ruby Jane) who also made her acting debut in cursed series The Idol.
Both seasons of The White Lotus so far have featured an incredible cast, from Murray Bartlett as Season One’s tragic hotel manager Armond to Aubrey Plaza‘s cynical-of-the-super-rich lawyer Harper in Season Two. Plus, who could forget Theo James and his potentially prosthetic monster penis?
Since the show brought back Jennifer Coolidge‘s character for another stay at The White Lotus hotel, why not bring back another character?
As revealed by Variety, Natasha Rothwell, who played fan fave spa manager Belinda Lindsey, will return for the new season.
Variety deduced that since Season Three is going to be “a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality,” according to Mike White, this could potentially be Belinda’s tie-in as a wellness guru.
Additionally, Deadline confirmed on January 5 that Leslie Bibb, Harry Potter’s Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan of True Detective fame, Parker Posey, Dom Hetrakul and Tayme Thapthimthong will star as some of the main cast of the hit show’s third season alongside Rothwell.
On January 9 it was confirmed that The Gilded Age and Gone Girl star Carrie Coon will be joining the ensemble in an announcement from HBO.
The potential appearance of Carrie Coon was leaked by an unverified source earlier in January when a screenshot was shared by Deuxmoi claiming to be a cast-list for The White Lotus Season Three.
Many of the names were then confirmed by HBO, including Jason Isaacs and Carrie Coon, however others such as Walton Goggins, Woody Harrelson, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Sex Education star Aimee Lou Wood are yet to have an official confirmation.
But for now we can beg and pray it’s true, because Aimee Lou Wood would be am-a-zing!
It should be noted that whoever sent in the blind to Deuxmoi misspelt two names in the list, so take that with whatever grain of salt you like. But hey, four out of 12 isn’t bad!
Notably, the names shared by Deuxmoi last year — Jennifer Coolidge and Season One’s Connie Britton — were not on the new cast list. Could they be making cameos? Is there a flashback scene? We can only hope.
It has also been speculated that Danny DeVito may appear in the new season, as White was spotted having dinner with the famous comic.
Meanwhile Jennifer Aniston and Jamie Lee Curtis have both put up their hands to star in the new season which sounds like a fab idea to us!
There have also been calls for Pamela Anderson to join the gang.
Whether or not they actually get cast remains to be seen, but it’s fun to dream, isn’t it?
Speaking of dreaming: fans have also started drafting their dream cast list for the next season of the bonkers HBO series.
Writer Evan Ross Katz pulled together the following primo list of suggested stars that includes Lindsay Lohan, Keke Palmer, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kim Cattrall.
Fans have also taken to Twitter to cast The White Lotus Season Three. Suggestions have included Rachel Sennot, Bill Hader, Evan Rachel Wood and Brenda Song to name but a handful.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, White confirmed a cheeky detail on his dream casting for the show’s long term future:
“If the show goes on for a couple of seasons, it would be fun to have an all-star season.”
The impact of the SAG-AFTRA strikes means that official casting has not been able to begin, and only Rothwell is absolutely confirmed.
What is the location for The White Lotus Season Three?
The White Lotus Season One was set in Hawaii and filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui. Season Two was set in Sicily and filmed at another Four Seasons hotel, the San Domenico Palace in Taormina.
And we’ve just learned that The White Lotus Season Three will be set in the gorg Thailand, per Variety.
Mike White himself previously teased that it would be set in Asia just after Season Two wrapped.
“I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. You know, we did Europe, and maybe Asia, something crazy like that, that would be fun,” he told Deadline.
What will The White Lotus Season Three be about?
White revealed in HBO Max’s Unpacking S2 E7 special that the third season will focus on “death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”
“The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” he said.
“I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”
In terms of how this next instalment will play out, plot lines are light on. However, we’ve just got a sniff of intel that speaks to how the production of season 3 is shaping up. The composer of the iconic S2 theme song Cristobal Tapia de Veer has sat down to spill the tea on the score for the new season.
In an interview with Variety Tapia de Veer said he’s gleaning a lot of inspo from TikTok of all bloody places.
“I hear interesting things in TikTok or YouTube sometimes,” he said.
“I think that the best song I heard in the last few years that I can remember is people harmonising to a cat on TikTok. There’s a cat, and somebody put some piano and then some girls started harmonising, and then there’s all these versions harmonising this cat, it’s super moving and so spontaneous and fresh that this is grabbing a lot more my attention than super-produced pop music.”
Although this could be seen as a weird tangent to the untrained eye, if there’s anyone who can make magic out of cat harmonies it’s the composer of the White Lotus theme song. Strap in folks, it’s set to be another weird and wonderful ride.
We’ll keep you posted as soon as we know more about The White Lotus Season Three. Until then, you can keep up with the first two seasons on BINGE and Foxtel, with new eps dropping weekly.
