'The White Lotus' Prepares for a Dark Third Season
by EG
You might have thought that the first two seasons of HBO's hit series The White Lotus were pretty dark, but its creator says that the upcoming third season is going to be "much, much darker." Mike White also says that he's confident that some of the new cast will be able to replace Jennifer Coolidge, a favorite from the first two seasons who won't be returning. Read on for details.
Get ready for a darker White Lotus, says creator Mike White.
The sole writer-director of HBO’s Emmy-winning hit returns with the third season of his adored black comedy on Feb. 16. This time around, the guests will be visiting the Thailand location of the White Lotus hotel chain that ties all of the seasons together.
But White, in a new interview with Time, says the Thailand-set season will be “much, much darker” than the two previous seasons, which were set in Hawaii and Italy, respectively. It’s also grander and more epic, he says.
“I do feel like the other seasons were a rehearsal for this one,” said White, while speaking to the outlet from the show’s set in Phuket.
When discussing how years of travel and his observations of how a vacation can devolve into an existential crisis, White says, “If you’re in some place where it’s a different culture, different language, different vibe, and you’re also dealing with heavy personal things [there are moments where] you feel like, ‘Should I just walk into the water?’”
Season three of The White Lotus cast includes Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Parker Posey, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Patrick Schwarzenegger and more as hotel guests of the White Lotus in Thailand. Among the staff is Tayme Thapthimthong, Lalisa Manobal of K-pop’s Blackpink and returning star Natasha Rothwell, who reprises her season one character, spa manager Belinda, from the White Lotus Hawaii.
Goggins told Time that his character is lost when he arrives in season three. “He is angry, and he’s bitter about the hand that life has dealt him,” he said. White also acknowledged the absence of Emmy-winning seasons one and two star, and his close friend, Jennifer Coolidge — whose character saw a tragic fate in the season two finale — adding “there’s definitely some performances I feel rival her as far as hopefully iconic performances.”
“They’re all in some kind of hurt,” he added of this season’s guests. “Like, they’re all dead, but they don’t know it…because it’s dealing with these existential tropes of facing into the nothingness of self [and] Buddhist themes that have life and death and ethical aspects, [the season] just got more heavy.”
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.