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Grab the cutest (and apparently for this season, the most scandalous) bikini you own and cue the warbling theme music, because it's time to return to White Lotus resort life. Following the show's unforgettable season 2 finale (RIP Tanya McQuoid, played by Jennifer Coolidge), the third installment of The White Lotus is set to premiere February 16 -- this time taking audiences to Thailand with a whole new crop of guests.
The first two seasons of The White Lotus became a buzzy internet sensation almost over night -- singularly scooping up 14 Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes; inspiring iconic cultural moments ("These gays! They're trying to kill me!"); putting the actor Coolidge back on the map, with an Emmy in hand; and turning its writer and director, Mike White, into a household name.
The cringe-comedy show takes place in a fictional White Lotus resort (in the first season, Hawaii; in the second, Sicily) that plays host to a cast of psychosocially dysfunctional guests with no material wants but who nevertheless don't know what to do with their lives or how to spend them happily with each other. As their lives brush up against one another, the hilarious satire of wealth and privilege plays out in unsettling ways no viewer can look away from.
With the highly-anticipated third season in the works, fans eagerly await every detail that has thus been dished. Who will star? Will our beloved Jennifer return to the screen in some kind of plot twist? What's the plotline? Fear not, fellow binger. Let's break down everything we know so far about the White Lotus season 3.
The season 3 trailer dropped yesterday, revealing just enough to get us through the holiday season. The segment teased a star-studded cast including Natasha Rothwell, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, and K-pop group Blackpink's singer, Lisa. While fun and play are certainly in order for the guests checking into the White Lotus, some visitors like Posey's character begin to suspect that "something is off," while Monaghan's character questions "what the f- is this place"?
It all seems to unravel, as it did most gloriously in season 2, with shots of a body bag, a sequence of steamy dance scenes, and Posey's character lamenting that "someone stole my Lorazepam, I'm going to have to drink myself to sleep."
Earlier in 2024, series creator Mike White hinted at potential plot points for the upcoming season during a Max featurette after the second season's final episode aired. "The first season we highlighted money and then the second season is sex and I think the third season, it would be maybe a kind of satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality," he said. "It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus."
"He's playing with some really interesting dynamics," Coon, who will play one of the vacationers in season 3, told Vanity Fair. "Of course, he's satirizing rich white people, and he's doing it very well. He's really speaking to people who need to be spoken to in a really interesting way." As for how he'll accomplish that in season 3, Coon adds, "he had a season about money; he had a season about sex. And this is his season about death."
The film's stunning filming locations at two Four Seasons hotels, in Maui and Sicily, have acted as ads in themselves for the destinations (truly, there's no such thing as bad publicity) -- so it's no surprise that, in line with speculation (ourselves included), season 3 was filmed at another Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui.
The luxury beach resort is situated on a private peninsula on Thailand's northeast coast. Guests of this resort can lounge at the property's sparkling infinity pool with a cool drink; relax at the world-class spa (where we will see Rothwell as she reprises her role as a spa director from the first season); explore the area's pristine beaches bordered by tropical greenery; or relax on the private deck of their traditional villa, overlooking the Gulf of Siam.
The show was also filmed at the Anantara Mai Khao Villas, a collection of luxury villas on the northern coast of Phuket. The villas are dotted around the property's lagoon, in traditional Thai style, just beyond Phuket's longest beach.
"It's all very meta on every level," actor Walton Goggins said of filming in the Talk on CBS. "We're guests checking into a hotel playing guests checking into a hotel. We spend all this time together, whether we like it or not, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. We work where we stay."
White chose to film in Thailand over Japan after being offered millions of dollars in filming incentives from the Thai government. "The Thai government had just announced a renewal and improvement on their film incentive system. A 30 percent rebate. For their project, that meant $4.4 million alone," said Japanese producer Georgina Pope told Deadline, recalling a location scouting trip to Japan.
"Everyone looked at me with sympathy. At the time in Japan, we had no incentive in place at all," Pope continued. I could not respond with a concrete answer. All I could hear was the sound of a $35 million project flying out the window."
The show will also be filmed in Phuket, the chaotic streets of Bangkok, and Ko Pha Ngan, a tropical island known for its nightlife.
The star-studded ensemble in The White Lotus season three will feature the likes of Gilded Age star Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Michelle Monaghan, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Parker Posey, Leslie Bibb, Aimee Lou Wood, Nicholas Duvernay, Sam Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook, and many more. Blackpink member Lisa, who appears under her given name, Lalisa Manobal, will also appear in the cast.
In March 2024, HBO announced that Charlotte Le Bon, too, will be joining the cast, replacing Francesca Corney, in a second recasting. (Julian Kostov also was cast, replacing Serbian actor Miloš Biković for his alleged pro-Putin views.) Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreaux, who played with White on his season of the reality TV competition Survivor, will also cameo in the upcoming season, ET reported.
"The new chapter's plot...follows a new group of guests at another White Lotus property including a multigenerational gang with a patriarch, a female corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, a country club wife, a misfit and a yogi," Deadline reported. It's unclear who is playing what role.
Here's what we know: There will be a group of three long-time friends (Bibb as Kate, Coon as Laurie, and Monaghan as Jaclyn) on a girls' trip after not having seen each other for a while; a rugged man (Walton Goggins as Rick) with a chip on his shoulder, traveling with his girlfriend; a wealthy businessman (Jason Isaacs as Timothy) vacationing with his wife and three children; and a free-spirit (Wood as Chelsea), traveling with her on-edge older boyfriend Rick.
In August 2024, Schwarzenegger revealed on Instagram that season 3 had wrapped: "What an honor It was to work & learn from some of the most talented actors in the world. You all made this project a lifetime of memories," he wrote.
Coolidge's fan-favorite White Lotus character, Tanya, was also one of the only characters to appear in both seasons 1 and 2, and won Emmys for both performances. After a stunning performance that put Jennifer Coolidge in the limelight, it's difficult to believe that the actress, who was in the first two seasons, will not return in the show's next installment. White, himself, said at the season 2 premiere, "Jennifer is my friend and everybody loved her in the first season, and I was like, 'I can't go to Italy without Jennifer.' And maybe that's still the case. Like, maybe you can't go to Japan without Jennifer, either. There are so many fun actors we've worked with so far, so it's just kind of like who's available."
Unfortunately, Tanya met a tragic demise at the end of season 2 and despite fan's speculations that she's resurrected in some way, HBO has confirmed with us that she will not appear in season 3. Ahead of season 3 beginning production, Coolidge told Today, "I'm jealous of everyone that's going. I just want to stress I'm not a good sport about it, but there's nothing I can do."
She added, "I think it's going to be good. There's going to be all sorts of good stuff in it, probably great sex stuff. You know how Mike White writes -- it's never, never a dull moment. I think he's going to slay with this one."
Continuing the series' pattern of bringing back one character from a past season, there will be one familiar face in season 3. Natasha Rothwell, who played spa manager Belinda in Season One, will return, Today has confirmed. Belinda became a fan favorite for her off-kilter encounters with Jennifer Coolidge's character, Tanya, in season 1.
"Belinda is back baby!!!" Rothwell tweeted. In an interview with Variety, she said when she read the scripts for season 3, "I gasped out loud a minimum of five times, and this was just me reading them!"
She added, "The scripts are a testament to Mike's skill and ability to tell the most smart and entertaining stories. I mean, everything that he does is like a lesson to me as an actor and a performer. And as a writer myself, he takes folks on a journey. Everyone needs to buckle up, because it's going to get real!"
The premiere date has been officially confirmed. The show will premiere Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 9 p.m. eastern on HBO. There will be eight episodes in the season.