You know how it is: the second you touch down from one holiday, you want to book another straight away. Such was the case with The White Lotus, Mike White’s incredibly popular and multi, multi award-winning dramedy about the terrible things rich people get up to on their luxury holidays. No sooner than series two wrapped up in December 2022, fans wanted to cash in their Avios for another follow-up season, ASAP.
As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes kept the series grounded for a while in 2023, it’s now almost boarding time for the newest adventure for a new group of elite jet-setters. While they’re blissfully unaware that someone's about to be killed off in a five-star resort, we’ve thankfully got a bit more intel on the series.
Here’s everything you need to know about the return of The White Lotus, series three:
When is The White Lotus series 3 out?
Not soon enough for our liking, but it is at least in production. As previously predicted by Esquire, it’s going to be set in Thailand, specifically in Koh Samui – thanks to the Four Seasons hotel chain, which has doubled up as The White Lotus luxury resorts in Hawaii and Sicily for the previous two series – and filming will also take place in the capital city, Bangkok, and Phuket.
Filming began filming in February 2024, confirmed by this clapper-board tweet:
And Parker Posey – announced for the cast in January 2024 – said, that aside from not being able to really say anything (those pesky “NDAs”), the shoot would be six months long. By our reckoning takes us up to August 2024, providing filming all goes without any hitches.
A sizzle real from Max (formerly known as HBO) in December 2023 then confirmed that we can expect it in 2025:
Who’s in The White Lotus series 3?
Sadly, no Jennifer Coolidge as the clueless heiress Tanya McQuoid. It’ll be interesting to see how Mike White’s series fares without his inimitable muse.
There is one return from a previous cast member, however, and she does have links with Tanya. Remember the beauty spa manager, Belinda, who Tanya promised to set up a wellness centre with, only to callously ditch her when Greg turned up on the scene? And look how well that choice turned out. Anyway, Natasha Rothwell, who played Belinda, confirmed that she would be making a comeback in season three back in April 23, when she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Belinda’s back, baby!!!”
Then, amid much speculation as to our group ensemble for season 3, the first names were revealed in January 2024: Jason Isaacs (The Death of Stalin, The OA), Parker Posey (Dazed & Confused; A Mighty Wind), Leslie Bibb (Iron Man), Michelle Monaghan (Gone Baby Gone), Dom Hetrakul (Bangkok Dangerous) and Tayme Thapthimthong (Farang) are set to star.
Meanwhile, Carrie Coons – currently making waves in HBO‘s well-received period drama The Gilded Age – has also joined the cast, alongside Walter Goggins (Justified, The Shield), Sam Nivola (Maestro, White Noise), Patrick Schwarzenegger (The Staircase), Sarah Catherine Hook (Impeachment: American Crime Story) and British actor Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education).
Miloš Biković was originally cast in a unnamed role, but after Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised his casting when he supported Russia's invasion of the country, Biković was subsequently dropped from the cast and replaced with Julian Kostov.
What's that? You want more cast members? Well you're in luck. At the end of January, it was announced that Arnas Fedaravičius (The Last Kingdom), Nicholas Duvernay (Bel-Air) and Francesca Corney (The Buccaneers) had booked a ticket, too, alongside Morgana O’Reilly and Lek Patravadi.. While in February, K-Pop fans were hyped to hear that Blackpink’s Lisa would be starring in her first ever acting role, and The Leftovers’ Scott Glenn would be joining the fun too. That is going to be one helluva fight over the sun loungers each morning.
Sadly, it looks like the whispers that Harry Styles shaving his head to play the role of a yoga teacher have come to nowt, but Deadline reported that the show was still casting for “a patriarch, a corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, a misfit and a yogi.” As always, we have thoughts, should the casting department need any help at all.
What happens in The White Lotus series 3?
As for the plot, well, that’s all strictly under wraps for now, but all we know is that it’ll once again involve a murder mystery that also skewers the super-rich. Speaking in the Unpacking clips at the end of series 2, as per Variety, White gave a few more hints as to what we could expect, and it could get deep and meaningful over the poolside pina coladas: “The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex. I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”
White also let Deadline in on a little secret too: “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.”
Rothwell also told Vanity Fair that after reading the scripts, there are some big shocks in store: “I gasped out loud a minimum of five times, and this was just me reading them. The scripts are a testament to Mike’s skill and ability to tell the most smart and entertaining stories.”
Where can I watch The White Lotus series 3?
The White Lotus season 3 will once again be available on Max in the US, Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK and on Binge in Australia.
