Like Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya, you may never recover from the finale of The White Lotus’s second season. Still, it’s time to start planning your next trip—because HBO is taking us on another vacation to one of the White Lotus resorts for season three. Here’s everything we know about the new season so far:
Season three of The White Lotus will be set in Thailand.
The season’s first teaser dropped on August 5, and the brief clip shows the cast awash in a hot and humid yellow filter, riding a speed boat, jumping in a pool, practicing what looks like Muay Thai boxing, and the words, “What happens in Thailand, stays in Thailand.”
It’s time for a new set of champagne problems.
Much like seasons one and two, season three will center on a group of guests at a White Lotus resort, with an overarching theme connecting their storylines. The show’s first installment focused on class and money, while season two skewered the roles of sex and gender. For season three, creator Mike White has revealed that he wants to explore themes of “death and Eastern religion and spirituality.” Hence, the Thai setting.
White has also said of the season: “It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus. It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier.”
Natasha Rothwell is returning.
White will continue his tradition of keeping at least one familiar face between seasons (as he did with Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya McQuoid and her husband Greg, played by Jon Gries in season two). In this case, Natasha Rothwell will be that returning actor, reprising her Emmy-nominated role from season one as Belinda Lindsey, the spa manager who got a raw deal when Tanya ghosted on an agreement to start a new wellness center together. Fans were disappointed by Belinda’s original story arc, so it’ll be interesting to see where this journey takes her.
Rothwell told Vanity Fair that she “gasped out loud a minimum of five times” while reading the season three scripts. “When we did the first season, we sat down and talked a lot about Belinda and [White] was so receptive to feedback, and we plan to approach it the same way,” she said.
The first official trailer is here.
The first official trailer for the season, which dropped December 16, opens with Blackpink’s Lisa welcoming the guests to the resort. Rothwell says she’s on an exchange program to the resort, and as she gets her feet massaged, optimistically says, “I feel like something good’s gonna come out of this.” But any notion of smooth sailing is quickly disavowed, as the rest of the clip shows the resort’s guests, in typical White Lotus manner, struggling with ego, substance abuse, sexual relationships, and money. “If everybody gives into base instincts,” Sam Nivola’s character narrates over scenes of late-night dancing, drinking, kissing, and swimming, “It’d be total depravity, like a race to the bottom.” Parker Posey then gives this iconic line reading: “Someone stole my Lorazepam. I’m gonna have to drink myself to sleep!”
Watch the clip, below:
The rest of the cast is sprawling.
This season’s ensemble cast includes Posey, Nivola, Goggins, Wood, Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood, Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, Christian Friedel, Morgana O’Reilly, Shalini Peiris, Francesca Corney, Nicholas Duvernay, and Arnas Fedaravičius.
Posey, in particular, has popped up on many fans’s dream casting lists. Surprisingly, she’s never worked with White before, but she does have a long history of co-starring in multiple Christopher Guest-directed films with Coolidge, including Best in Show and For Your Consideration. So, she’s qualified to fill Tanya’s absence.
Blackpink’s Lisa (whose full name is Lalisa Manoban) makes her acting debut in the series. It’s also a homecoming of sorts for Manoban, who is Thai. She’s the most recent Blackpink member to appear in an HBO show; last year, her bandmate Jennie Kim starred alongside The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp in The Idol.
The cast will also include Thai actors Dom Hetrakul, Tayme Thapthimthong, and Lek Patravadi.
The White Lotus season three returns next year.
After a few delays, season three of The White Lotus will officially return on February 16, 2025 on Max.
