Mike White’s The White Lotus has enlisted its first new residents. Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Dom Hetrakul and Tayme Thapthimthong are set to join returning cast member Natasha Rothwell in the upcoming third season of HBO’s Emmy-winning anthology series.
The new installment, set in Thailand, will begin filming in and around Koh Samui, Phuket, and Bangkok in February and will follow a new group of guests at another White Lotus property.
As usual, no character details about the guests are shared but as Deadline reported exclusively in November, revealing the February start of production, the multi-generational group includes a patriarch, a female corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, including a country club wife, a misfit and a yogi.
Rothwell is set to reprise her Season 1 role as Belinda.
The casting of Season 3 began hours after the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike and carried on through the holidays, with several more actor deals currently being negotiated.
On the filming and promotion of the third installment, HBO has partnered with the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
“It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus,” White said of Season 3 back in November. “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.”
It is unclear whether this means that the number of episodes would increase again after going up from 6 in Season 1 to 7 in Season 2.
Originally targeted for 2024, Season 3 is “likely moving into 2025” due to the strikes, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max, said in November.
Getting the new seasons of The White Lotus, The Last Of Us and Euphoria — all delayed by the work stoppage – up and running has been a major priority for HBO.
Following the Season 2 finale of The White Lotus last December, White said that Season 3 will be exploring “death in Eastern religion and spirituality.”
Said HBO’s head of drama Francesca Orsi in May, “It’s an exploration about spirituality versus the ego. And it’s set against the Eastern religion.”
The first installment of The White Lotus, which premiered July 2021 and was set in Hawaii, received 20 Emmy nominations across 13 categories and won ten trophies, the most wins of any program that year, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. The Sicily-set second season, which premiered in December 2022, garnered 23 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series.
Created, written and directed by White, The White Lotus is executive produced by White, David Bernad and Mark Kamine.
Bibb is repped by CAA. Isaacs is repped by Independent Talent Group, Gersh and Silver Lining Entertainment. Monaghan repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Posey is repped by CAA.
Source: Deadline Hollywood