The sun has set on Thailand as the third season of The White Lotus comes to an explosive end. But creator Mike White is already conceptualizing the next chapter of the show.
In the latest Unpacking the Episode on Max, White teased that the location for the forthcoming season might not be beachside. After seasons in Hawaii, Sicily, and Thailand, it sounds like White is ready for something different.
“For the fourth season, I want to get a little bit out of the ‘crashing waves against rocks’ vernacular,” White said. “But there’s always room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels.”
That doesn’t really narrow things down much, although earlier this year HBO EVP Francesca Orsi confirmed that the producers were already scouting locations. “I can’t really say where we’re going to land but chances are somewhere in Europe,” Orsi told Deadline. She added that there are “some countries on the map that we talked about, but nothing to report on until they actually go locations scouting.”
So far White has preferred warm, island locales. His longtime producing partner, David Bernad, in fact, confirmed to The Guardian that “Mike doesn’t like the cold.” There has been some evidence that White could be looking at Australia. In 2023, he acknowledged he hopes to take the anthology show worldwide.
“My dream would be to hit every continent, so yeah, this is like its own continent basically,” he told press at Sydney’s Vivid Festival. “We kind of have to come to Australia if we keep going. It would be so fun. Obviously, there’s a huge wealth of talent here and the beauty is inarguable, so it feels like it checks all the boxes.”
The White Lotus shoots in Four Seasons hotels, which opens up at a lot of the globe. Fans have also speculated that Morocco, Mexico, or French Riviera could welcome a new cast of the show.
Speaking on The White Lotus Official Podcast, White further explained his aims for the third season. “During this season, at least from how I was composing it, is using Buddhist ideas as the organizing principle, trying to think about identity as a cause of suffering,” he said. “I think of identity as this way of thinking about yourself in these concrete, literal terms that then end up becoming a source of pain for you. It can be a source of pride, but it also becomes a source of pain.”
He added, “Basically, the whole thing is really a kind of dramatic investigation. And that is why the writing is a little different than the other ones. Obviously, there are satirical elements, but there is a kind of Buddhist parable. Like the Rick (Walton Goggins) story. It’s a little more hard-boiled than something that I usually write.”
From Rolling Stone US
