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The Thailand-set season 3 of the hit satire will premiere next month.
The White Lotus season two came to its dramatic conclusion in December 2022, and won’t be back on our screens until February 2025.
Creator Mike White revealed the third season of The White Lotus will be a “supersized” season. “It’s going to be longer, bigger, crazier,” he told Vanity Fair. “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.”
Actress Carrie Coon, who will star in season three, spoke about White in a new interview. “He’s playing with some really interesting dynamics,” she said. “I think it’s something he would continue to do if they let him, because I think he would like to get bigger and more international and put together weirder groups of people — that’s what he’s passionate about. And I think that’s important in this world, to see people banging up against each other in this way. 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. He had a season about money; he had a season about sex. And this is his season about death.”
In November 2024, in a trailer for Max’s 2025 slate, viewers got a glimpse at White Lotus, including at characters played by Natasha Rothwell, Blackpink’s Lisa, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Parker Posey, and Walton Goggins, and in December 2024, the network finally released the first teaser trailer (watch above). In January 2025, the full length trailer dropped:
Here’s everything we know so far about The White Lotus season three.
HBO officially renewed the show for a third season.
“Reflecting on The White Lotus humble, run-and-gun origin as a contained pandemic production, it’s impossible not to be awestruck by how Mike orchestrated one of the buzziest and most critically acclaimed shows,” Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming and head of HBO drama series and films, said. “And yet, he’s only continued to reach new heights in season 2, which is the ultimate testament to Mike’s raw, unparalleled vision. His courage to explore the uncharted waters of the human psyche, paired with his signature irreverent humor and buoyant directing style, have us all dreaming of more vacation days at the resort we’ve come to adore. We couldn’t be more thrilled to get the chance to collaborate on a third season together.”
Creator Mike White is excited, too. “I feel so lucky to get this opportunity again and am excited to reunite with my amazingly talented collaborators,” he shared in a statement.
At Series Mania in March 2023, HBO’s CEO Casey Bloys said White just pitched the idea for season three. “It’s great, a really fun idea,” Bloys said. In a later interview, Orsi shared the season is “an exploration about spirituality versus the ego. And it’s set against the Eastern religion. But beyond that, I can’t really speak to some of the character ideas that Mike has.”
It will take place in Thailand.
In a new interview, he teased it will be about “Eastern versus Western religion, or Western people in an Eastern culture. Maybe after sex it would be nice to have something that’s a little more celestial or something that’s a little more out of the carnal, I guess. But I don’t know. I have to beg off, to be honest, because I don’t really know.”
The first season shot at the Four Seasons Maui, and the second season filmed at San Domenico, a Four Seasons Hotel in Taormina, so there’s a good chance the third season will also be shot at a Four Seasons property. In March 2023, Variety reported that season three will be set in Thailand, according to sources close to the production. It was possibly going to be set in Japan, but the team ultimately picked Thailand.
In January 2024, it was reported that White Lotus season three will film at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui and the Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas. “It’s all very meta on every level,” actor Walter Goggins said of filming. “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.”
The cast was announced in early 2024, but no details on their roles.
Walter Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood in a first look at the season.
In January 2024, Variety reported six actors joined the cast of The White Lotus season three: Leslie Bibb, Dom Hetrakul, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, and Tayme Thapthimthong.
Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, and Leslie Bibb in a sneak preview of the season.
Soon after, Gilded Age star Carrie Coon was also announced to join the cast, as were Christian Friedel, Morgana O’Reilly, Lek Patravadi, and Shalini Peiris. A few days later, there were even more casting announcements—Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Aimee Lou Wood. In February, Variety reported that Blackpink member Lisa will be part of the cast, marking her acting debut. (She will be credited under her given name, Lalisa Manobal.) In March, Deadline reported that Charlotte Le Bon 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.)
A few weeks ahead of the premiere, characters were revealed. Kate, Laurie, and Jaclyn are on a girls’ trip; Rick is traveling with his young girlfriend; the Ratliffs are vacationing in Thailand. Here’s who’s playing who:
- Leslie Bibb as Kate, one of three women on a girls’ trip
- Carrie Coon as Laurie, one of three women on a girls’ trip
- Michelle Monaghan as Jaclyn, one of three women on a girls’ trip
- Walton Goggings as Rick Hatchett, traveling with his younger girlfriend
- Aimee Lou Wood as Chelsea, Rick’s girlfriend
- Jason Isaacs as Timothy Ratliff, a wealthy businessman
- Parker Posy as Victoria Ratliff, his wife
- Patrick Schwarzenegger as Saxton Ratliff, their eldest
- Sarah Catherine Hook as Piper Ratliff, their only daughter
- Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff, their youngest
- Lalisa Manobal as Mook, a White Lotus employee
- Lek Patravadai as Sritala, a White Lotus Thailand co-owner
- Tayme Thapthimthong as Gaitok, a White Lotus security guard
- Natasha Rothwell as Belinda, a spa manager from the White Louts Hawaii
Evan Ross Katz reported that Survivor stars Natalie Cole and Carl Boudreux, who played with Mike White on his season of the reality TV competition, will cameo in the upcoming season.
In March 2024, actor Sam Nivola shared some snaps from Thailand, showing Iris Apatow, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Sarah Catherine Hook:
In August 2024, Schwarzenegger revealed season three had wrapped:
That’s a wrap on White Lotus Season 3 🪷
— Patrick Schwarzenegger (@PSchwarzenegger) August 9, 2024
6.5 in Thailand. What an experience. Can’t wait for yall to see this next year!! pic.twitter.com/rPJsK9CWgf
In an interview in September 2024, he teased, “there’s a lot of fun elements, and it’s gonna be wild.”
Jennifer Coolidge almost certainly won’t be back for season three—but other characters could return.
White said at the premiere of season two, “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.” However, it seems as though press about Coolidge needing to be in another season was a ruse to throw watchers off of the scent of who dies in the opening.
Jennifer Coolidge, and Jon Gries, who played her on-screen husband Greg Hunt, were the only actors to return from the first season of The White Lotus. Ahead of season three beginning production, Coolidge told, “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.”
Ahead of season two, White shared an idea for Connie Britton’s character, Nicole, to return to the show. “He wanted me to be in the second season, and there was an idea that I loved for the character,” Britton told Deadline. “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. I would love to see a spinoff on every character in that show.”
In an interview in 2023, Britton said she has yet to be asked back for season three, but would love to return. “I have loved collaborating with him and I’ll say yes to him ’til the end of time,” she said. (There’s no indication as of yet that Britton will be back for season three.)
Season two’s Michael Imperioli could return, too. “Who knows, maybe there’ll be another White Lotus season where Dominic comes with his wife and they patch it all up!” White told Esquire. Imperioli doesn’t want to get his hopes up but, would love to come back. He said, “I don’t want to think about it too much, because the idea of that makes me so happy. I don’t want to be disappointed … I would want nothing more than that. I just loved working with Mike so much.”
After getting an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Valentina, Sabrina Impacciatore told Deadline that Mike White “wrote me and said I want to work with you again,” but she said she doesn’t know if that means for season three. Theo James, who also received an Emmy nod for his portrayal of Cameron Sullivan in season two, also told the magazine “The nice thing about Mike is that he’s created a continuing world where these characters can interact in the future.”
Natasha Rothwell is confirmed to return.
One character that is definitely returning: Belinda, played by Natasha Rothwell. Variety first reported the news, and Rothwell confirmed it, tweeting, “Belinda is back baby!!!” In an interview in December 2023, she said, she’s read the scripts for season three, saying, “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!”
In an interview ahead of the season, Rothwell shared more details on Belinda’s arc. “She’s still working at the White Lotus, and she’s in Thailand doing sort of an exchange program to learn more about the wellness programs that the Thailand White Lotus offers,” she told EW. “She’s going to be a guest for the first time, even though she’s taking classes and it’s a work trip. She’s staying at the hotel, which is something that she hasn’t done before, and so we get to see her really dip her toe in the other side of life of the upstairs/downstairs of White Lotus.”
Rothwell continued, “She’s like, ‘Oh, someone’s going to come in and clean my room and I don’t know them?’ She gets a firsthand look at some of the things that I think went unnoticed by her [in] season 1. It’s a really cool exploration of status and her journey and reconciling the fact that her dreams of owning the spa never came to fruition, so what do you do? ‘I’m going to pick myself up and learn something new,’ and still grow in her own way.”
Belinda was last seen hurt by Tanya. “She was so devastated by Tanya taking what little hope she had and shattering it,” she says. “Over the course of the Italy season of White Lotus in the world that we’ve created, she’s been trying to dig herself out of that sadness and really be inspired again. Her purpose for coming to Thailand is to have a dream again.”
“We’ll see Belinda meet herself in a beautiful way,” Rothwell shares, adding, “I really do think that this season is magic. That’s the only word.”
White Lotus season three will premiered February 16, 2025.
Season one debuted in summer 2021, and season two in fall 2022. In spring 2023, HBO’s Francesca Orsi told Deadline, “The White Lotus was ideally looking to go in 2024 but there’s some question about timing of the strike.” In fall 2023, Bloys changed that timeline. In a teaser released in August 2024, it was revealed that the season will premiere in 2025.
In December, that premiere date was confirmed: Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 9 p.m. eastern. There will be eight episodes in the season.
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