The White Lotus season 3: key information
– Filming has officially wrapped
– No official release date revealed yet, though it’s et to return sometime in 2025
– First footage teased in a ‘new on Max in 2025’ trailer
– Cast member from season 1 is slated to return
– All-new cast members confirmed
– Creator Mike White keeping plot under wraps
– Max CEO Casey Bloys has hinted there’ll be a fourth season
The White Lotus season 3 will welcome a whole host of new guests (and returning customers in its ravenous fanbase) sometime next year. Despite the luxury hotel brand being plagued by – spoilers! – multiple murders, it appears socialites are still willing to visit the opulent resorts.
Following the success of the award-winning Max anthology series’ first two installments, there’s been quite the hiatus since The White Lotus season 2 debuted in 2022.
Still, while there’s no sign yet of a release date, there’s rousing news to share on season 3’s cast, likely plot, and the hit series’ future. You’ll need to book in for a stay (or, rather, read through this guide) to learn more, though. Full spoilers follow for The White Lotus seasons 1 and 2.
The White Lotus season 3 release date prediction
The White Lotus season 3 doesn’t have a launch date yet. However, the show was renewed for another outing in 2022. Since then, it’s been hit with various delays, including last year’s Hollywood, but now we know it’ll be with us sometime in 2025.
In August, Walton Goggins – one of season 3’s ensemble – took to Instagram (see above) to confirm that filming has officially wrapped. Unlike season 2, the turnaround from filming to release will be a little longer, so we’d imagine The White Lotus will return in early to mid-2025. Pressed for a month, we predict we’ll all be enjoying a bit of winter sun (in the northern hemisphere, anyway) when it arrives, with a January or February launch likely.
Even better news, Max subscribers will get a “longer, bigger, crazier” season 3 of The White Lotus, with showrunner Like White also telling Entertainment Weekly (EW) it’ll be a “supersized” installment. With season 1 lasting six episodes and season 2 running for seven episodes, we’d be surprised if The White Lotus season 3 didn’t comprise at least eight episodes. White’s tease indicates it may be even longer than that, though.
The White Lotus season 3 trailer: is there one?
New luxuries await you in Thailand. Season 3 of the @HBO Original Series #TheWhiteLotus is coming soon to Max. pic.twitter.com/6f25m4MI5fAugust 5, 2024
There isn’t an official trailer for The White Lotus season 3. But, in November, a ‘new on Max in 2025’ teaser dropped first-look clips at season 3 alongside many other highly anticipated shows.
That footage followed a six-second teaser (see the X/Twitter post above) showing off season 3’s new Thai resort, which opened with season 1’s spa worker, Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) arriving at the luxury hotel’s lobby. There were also quick glimpses at its new cast, including Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, and Patrick Schwarzenegger. A final shot of Posey lounging by the pool with Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan is also briefly seen before the words “What happens in Thailand, stays in Thailand” appear on the screen.
The White Lotus season 3 confirmed cast
Spoilers follow for The White Lotus season 1.
Here’s the confirmed cast for The White Lotus season 3, including a returning star from season 1 and the many new faces who’ll be checking in this time around:
- Natasha Rothwell as Belinda Lindsey
- Jason Isaacs as TBC
- Carrie Coon as TBC
- Patrick Schwarzenegger as TBC
- Aimee Lou Wood as TBC
- Scott Glenn as TBC
- Walton Goggins as TBC
- Leslie Bibb as TBC
- Michelle Monaghan as TBC
- Parker Posey as TBC
- Lalisa ‘Lisa’ Manobal as TBC
- Dom Hertakul as TBC
- Tayme Thapthimthong as TBC
- Sarah Catherine Hook as TBC
- Sam Nivola as TBC
- Nicholas Duvernay as TBC
- Francesca Corney as TBC
- Arna Fedaravičius as TBC
- Christian Friedel as TBC
- Morgana O’Reilly as TBC
- Lek Patravadi as TBC
- Shalini Peiris as TBC
- Julian Kostov as TBC
As confirmed in the season 3 teaser, season 1’s unfortunate spa worker Belinda is back for more dealings with the satirical series’ new elitist characters.
After meeting with Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) in Hawaii and pitching her business plan, it appeared that Tanya might invest some of her wealth to support Belinda’s dream. Clearly, though, she didn’t, hence Belinda having to get her old job back, albeit at a different resort. When it comes to her return in season 3, Natasha Rothwell told Variety: “Everyone needs to buckle up, because it’s going to get real!”
Aside from Belinda’s character, the other confirmed cast’s roles are unknown. If previous seasons are anything to go by, they’ll stay that way until just before this season airs, too. While Tanya was the only character to reprise her role in season 2, we know from that season’s tumultuous finale because – well, let’s get into it…
The White Lotus season 3 story speculation
Full spoilers follow for The White Lotus seasons 1 and 2.
As has been the case with the previous seasons of The White Lotus, creator Mike White is keeping schtum about this season’s plot. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter (THR), though, he revealed season 3 will be a “satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”
In another interview with THR, White spoke about whether season 3 would start the way the other two seasons had – with a dead body: “I don’t think it needs to always be a body. There are so many ways that we want to reinvent the show each year. Like, what is this show, other than people? A fresh mystery, people maybe expect that. But I don’t feel constrained by expectation. It’s fun.”
There are a few things we know for certain about The White Lotus season 3. For starters, it’s based at another luxury resort property – this time in Thailand – and Belinda will have a major role to play.
There’s also a little bit of news about the new characters. Last year, a list of 13 roles that White was casting for, included nine series regulars. As reported by Deadline, the roles “ranged in ages between 18-80s – with a patriarch, a corporate executive, an actress, a couple of mothers, a misfit, and a yogi among the bunch.” Who from the confirmed cast will play each role, and what those roles will mean, remain strictly under wraps.
Considering each season has a whole new cast, there’s not much point looking to the previous seasons for clues. Although, when it comes to Jennifer Coolidge, she may hope that the husband of her character Tanya – named Greg – returns in some capacity so she can get indirect revenge for his murderous plot to steal her fortune. Speaking with Variety, Coolidge said: “My hope for Jon [Gries] is that he’s not finished with Greg. I hope there’s some comeuppance for evil Greg. I think he should, I don’t know, end up in a meat-grinding machine.”
Will The White Lotus return after season 3?
With the success of the anthology series, we’d be really surprised if The White Lotus ends after three seasons. Thankfully, it sounds like HBO boss Casey Bloys is onboard for more installments.
Speaking with Variety about future plans for the show, he said: “I know Mike has a lot of ideas for where it could go. We’re lucky to be in business with him. And we have actors who now really, really want to be on the show because it’s a great opportunity and it’s great writing. So, I think as long as he wants to do it, we’ll go along for the ride. He’s really built a very interesting model to go from different parts of the world and have a rotating cast.”
That’s not quite a confirmation about a fourth entry, but it’s certainly a positive putlook for Bloys to have. After all, there are so many different locations The White Lotus could head for next and, with new multifaceted characters that we’d no doubt love to hate, the scope of this series could be vast.
So, what could future seasons look like? Speaking to THR, White was asked whether he’d be open to revisiting Greg’s character in the future, to which he said: “It would be easy to just be a full-on anthology, but I think it’s more fun to have little threads through the show. If the show goes on for a couple of seasons, it would be fun to have an all-star season”. An all-star season? Sign us up.
For more Max-focused coverage, read our guides on the best Max shows, best Max movies, The Last of Us season 2, and Peacemaker season 2.