Everything We Know So Far About The White Lotus Season 3

5 months ago

Our favourite satire is back for a third instalment

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One of the biggest TV shows of the modern day, The White Lotus isn’t hanging up its boots just yet. Following two heavily-awarded first seasons (five Emmys and two Golden Globes, to name a few), anticipation is sky-high for the third. Here are all the details we have so far – including all the newcomers expected to make an appearance in season 3, plus a teaser trailer.

The White Lotus Season 3: Plot, Cast, Release Date

A clapperboard commencing filming for The White Lotus season 3

Teaser Trailer

Blink and you miss it: HBO released a teaser trailer for The White Lotus season 3 earlier this year, featuring a suspect yellow hue. The teaser was released as part of the studio’s big 2024/25 promotional reel, featuring other popular series like Industry, The Penguin and And Just Like That. Watch it below.

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What Will The White Lotus Season 3 Be About?

Fans will know the premise well: each season is set in a different location of fictional hotel group The White Lotus, and follows a group of wealthy characters staying there. The two first seasons begin by ominously showing viewers that there has been a death at the hotel, before going back to tell the interweaving stories of the various guests, which lead up to the tragic event. Both are social satires, with the first focusing predominantly on themes of wealth and colonialism, and the second looking into topics of sex, lust and love. So what’s in store for season 3?

According to the show’s creator Mike White, season 3 will be ‘a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.’ What else? While he was discussing season two, White may have let some season three details slip. Before the second season took shape, ‘Originally, it was more of like a Bilderberg conference, more about getting into some of the bigger power dynamics there,’ White told Entertainment Weekly. ‘But Sicily was a totally different vibe than the idea I pitched. That didn’t seem right.’ So, does a bunch of European and North American politicians gallivanting in a luxurious resort seem right for Thailand?

He has also said it’s going to be a ‘supersized’ White Lotus: ‘longer, bigger, crazier’, adding that he is ‘super excited about the content of this season’. Us too.

From HBO’s short and snappy teaser, we are reintroduced to Belinda, a spa manager at The White Lotus Hawaii who we first met in season 1, who will be reprising her role in season 3. We also see clips of a speedboat, chicly dressed families walking in slow mo and sunbathing, and two Nak Muay competing in a Muay Thai ring, a hugely popular sport in Thailand. While plot details are still scant, we know the vibe will match up with previous seasons.

Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui

Where Was It Filmed?

The White Lotus season 3 was filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, as well as in Phuket and Bangkok. HBO partnered with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to support the filming and promotion of the third instalment. Read all about it here.

Previously, the show has taken us to Hawaii and Sicily, so it’s no surprise that the location for season 3 will be equally sunny.

Sabrina Impacciatore as Valentina in The White Lotus season 2

Who Will Star?

We only know one role so far: Natasha Rothwell will be returning as spa manager Belinda Lindsey, who we first met in season 1 when she developed a complicated relationship with Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge). Rothwell spoke about reprising her role in an interview with Vanity Fair at the Wonka premiere, describing the shock factor of the new scripts. ‘I gasped out loud a minimum of five times, and this was just me reading them,’ she said. ‘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!’

Other than that, we know a casting call asked for ‘a patriarch, a corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, a misfit and a yogi’, and we have a shiny list of stars who will appear. Drumroll please…

Natasha Rothwell as Belinda Lindsey, an empathetic masseuse/spa manager. No news just yet on whether Belinda is on holiday or if she has bagged a new gig at another White Lotus branch in Thailand.
Lalisa Manobal (aka Lisa from BLACKPINK)
Scott Glenn
Patrick Schwarzenegger
Aimee Lou Wood
Leslie Bibb
Jason Isaacs
Michelle Monaghan
Parker Posey
Dom Hetrakul
Tayme Thapthimthong
Carrie Coon
Christian Friedel
Morgana O’Reilly
Lek Patravadi
Shalini Peiris
Walton Goggins
Charlotte Le Bon
Sarah Catherine Hook
Sam Nivola
Nicholas Duvernay
Arnas Fedaravičius
Julian Kostov

Could there be a cameo from another season 1 star? Connie Britton, who starred as career-driven matriarch Nicole in season one, was supposed to return for The White Lotus season 2. In July 2022, she told Deadline: ‘[Mike] wanted me to be in the second season, and there was an idea that I loved for the character. Our intention is to do it in the third season. A piece of casting didn’t work in the second season, and we’re hoping to [do] that in the third season.’ Let’s see if that idea came to fruition…

Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus season 1

Will Jennifer Coolidge Reappear?

Of course, The White Lotus season 2 also had a different cast to season 1, bar two familiar faces: Jennifer Coolidge, who plays melancholic heiress Tanya (arguably the best of all), and Jon Gries, who plays her husband Greg (not so loveable). Given how season 2 ended (spoiler alert), Tanya won’t be returning for season 3. Saying that, White did previously tell Deadline: ‘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.’ That was before we saw her tragic fate in season 2, so White could have been trying to throw us off the scent ahead of the finale. But never say never.