Including whether it’s taking place in Thailand and what very famous women fans are petitioning to join the cast.
This article was originally published in December 2022 and has been updated.
Warning: The White Lotusseason 2 finale spoilers ahead!
Arrivederci, Sicily! It’s been…tense. But also funny, sad, delightful and without a doubt, a fully sensorial experience thanks to that wildly catchy The White Lotus season 2 theme song. I’ve been showering, unloading the dishwasher and scrolling Instagram with the electronic dinger acting as my life soundtrack, and may I just say it’s made the most mundane tasks just a little more fun? Anyway, the great news is that The White Lotus is officially coming back for a third season, so one can safely assume there’ll be a third iteration of the show’s theme song to enjoy. The bad news? No Tanya McQuoid to utter perfect lines like “did you knit your little cap?” Here’s what we know about The White Lotus season 3.
Where will The White Lotus season 3 take place?
The fancy locale of the third season’s fictional White Lotus resort hasn’t been confirmed by HBO, but that hasn’t stopped people from speculating.
Mike White teases ideas for #TheWhiteLotus Season 3 pic.twitter.com/6qPZz9pqPj
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) October 21, 2022
Series creator Mike White hinted at some possible locations in an interview with Deadline back in October, before season 3 was even official, suggesting that it would be interesting to go to a whole new continent, like Asia. “I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. You know, we did Europe… maybe Asia, something crazy like that, that would be fun.”
A thread on Reddit suggests that The White Lotus season 3 could unfold in Japan or India, both popular suggestions on social media that track with White’s comments.
On March 27, Variety reported that the show’s third season will take place at a lush resort in Thailand. “As the first two seasons of Mike White’s The White Lotus were shot at Four Seasons resorts in Hawaii and Italy, respectively, it’s possible that Season 3 will take place at one of the luxury hotel giant’s four properties in Thailand, which are located in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui and the Golden Triangle,” the article states, noting that despite having received this info from multiple sources, HBO had declined to comment.
Will any of the characters from The White Lotus season 2 be back for season 3?
That remains to be seen, but given White’s record of having just two characters from season 1 return for season 2 (Tanya McQuiod, played masterfully by the iconic Jennifer Coolidge, and her new husband Greg, played by Jon Gries), it suggests he could do something similar in season 3. Now (SPOILER!) fans know from watching the season 2 finale that (seriously, spoiler!) our beloved Tanya can’t return, but it does leave some loose ends when it comes to her story. As writer Paul Tassi theorizes for Forbes, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of sinister Greg, who Tassi suggests is a “super villain” in The White Lotus universe.
“While we knew that at least one storyline would carry over from season 1 when we saw that Tanya was returning for season 2, in the wake of the finale which ends with Tanya’s death as she tries to escape an elaborate scheme to murder her and take her fortune, what’s been revealed is that The White Lotus universe may have a larger, over-arching, sinister plot, one that we may see continue when season 3 arrives next time,” writes Tassi.
By extension, this supports the idea that we also haven’t seen the last of Portia, who is the only living person (aside from the dude that jumped off Quentin’s yacht) who can connect the dots between Greg and Tanya’s death, with Tassi also theorizing that Quentin’s “nephew” Jack was meant to kill Portia, but instead let her go at the last second. “In the closing moments of the show, Jack warns Portia not to mess with the ‘powerful people’ he works for,” write Tassi, “including his uncle, but by proxy, that includes Greg, Tanya’s husband who now apparently inherits all of her vast fortune in the wake of her death.”
Have any new cast members been confirmed for season 3?
If the people of the internet have their way, both Pamela Anderson and Lindsay Lohan will be joining The White Lotus season 3. A fan-led campaign (including a petition) to cast Anderson as Tanya’s grieving sister got tons of attention back in February, while buzz around Lohan joining the all-star cast has recently been ramping up. According to Marie Claire, there are hundreds of tweets trying to manifest this iconic casting. No word yet on whether either of these famous women will appear in season 3.
Lindsay Lohan for WHITE LOTUS Season 3, obviously.
— Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) November 11, 2022
When will The White Lotus season 3 be released?
While a premiere date for the show’s third season hasn’t been announced, the short amount of time between seasons 1 and 2 suggests viewers could be watching guests could be checking into The White Lotus as soon as fall 2023.
What are some theories about the plot of The White Lotus season 3?
In addition to the continuation of the evil Greg plot mentioned above, there have been lots of theories thrown around about season 3. One popular one is that we’ll see Daphne Sullivan, the more-than-meets-the-eye wife of certified douchebag finance bro Cameron, head off on a luxurious girls’ trip. Immediately, yes! While we’re here, let’s take a moment to appreciate the excellent acting skills of Meghann Fahy, the anti-long-suffering wife:
Meghann Fahy is SUCH a good actor. these 30 seconds of Daphne processing her husband’s affair (and then calculating how she’s gonna get back at him) are perfection#TheWhiteLotus pic.twitter.com/razdMtDu5G
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) December 12, 2022
Naturally, if The White Lotus season 3 sees Daphne and her suitcase full of cropped corset tops host a lush girls’ vacay, Harper has to be on the guest list and then, if we’re lucky, they both divorce their husbands when they get home.
On the topic of Daphne, Forbes writer Tassi points out that the aforementioned evil Greg plot also suggests a potential link between awful Greg et al and… d-bag Cameron. “If we’re on the subject of ‘powerful, shady people,’ I also recall what Daphne said about Cameron’s partners, that they were real ‘psychopaths,’ and also some of the most powerful people in finance,” writes Tassi.“ While we have no direct link between them and Greg, I do wonder if there is literally some sort of evil Legion of Doom being built behind the scenes of The White Lotus with Greg at the apex, which does not seem like such a wild theory after last night.” Whoa.