We may have to wait a little while before we can check in for another vacation at The White Lotus, but it sounds like showrunner Mike White has the deluxe suite booked and ready for whenever we arrive. (We wouldn’t even be disappointed if it’s not the pineapple suite!)
“It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus,” the showrunner said of the upcoming third season, which will reportedly send guests to engage in as-of-yet-unknown sin and depravity in Thailand. “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,” he continued (via Entertainment Weekly).
In a recent press conference, HBO CEO Casey Bloys announced that The White Lotus would not be re-opening its doors to guests until at least 2025 due to the writer and actor strikes. But behind the scenes, White is raring to get everything moving. The director is hoping to start filming “at the beginning of the year,” pending a resolution to the SAG-AFTRA strike, he said. “I’m seriously finishing scripts,” he went on. “Still waiting to be able to cast. If the SAG strike isn’t resolved soon, then yeah, we’d have to push again because the show has a new cast every season, so there’s lots of parts to cast... I’m more than eager to get going.”
So far, all we really know about the season is that it will potentially be a “satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality,” per a tease from White, and that Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda—beloved spa manager and victim of Tanya McQuoid (may she rest in peace)—will be returning. (Yay!)
While we unfortunately won’t see Jennifer Coolidge or her “Peppa Pig” getup in another lavish locale, White did leave the door open for other cast members to return. “It would be easy to just be full-on anthology, but I think it’s more fun to have little threads through the show,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this spring. “If the show goes on for a couple of seasons, it would be fun to have an all-star season.” This writer would give anything to watch Sydney Sweeney’s Olivia Mossbacher from season one face off against Haley Lu Richardson’s Portia from season two. Olivia would obviously win, but Portia would wear such an insane look to her own funeral. That’s just good TV.