Walton Goggins has taken a room at The White Lotus
We repeat: Walton Goggins has taken a room at The White Lotus. Please plan accordingly.
Walton Goggins is packing his bags and heading to The White Lotus.
Variety reports that five more stars have signed on for the third season of Mike White and HBO’s transient anthology dramedy. Most importantly, White Lotus has finally gotten around to including Walton Goggins, a surefire cast member known for making any project better simply by being on screen. We can only hope he becomes comedically overwhelmed and forced to peacock before his fellow arriving guests: Sam Nivola, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aimee Lou Wood, and Sarah Catherine Hook.
Goggins was last seen stealing the final scene of Justified: City Primeval, a tease for another season of Rayland Givens and Boyd Crowder’s smoldering sexual tension that will go unfilled for the time being. Thanks, White Lotus. If that’s a spoiler for anyone, we encourage them to watch the underseen Justified: City Primeval. It’s great.
HBO and Mike White are filling vacancies at a record clip. Last week, Carrie Coon, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monahan, Leslie Bibb, Dom Hetrakul, Parker Posey, and more were announced as the latest group of vacationers heading to Thailand for the third season, with Natasha Rothwell playing the role of the sole character from previous seasons. Rothwell will reprise spa manager Belinda for the new season. Perhaps, she will manage Goggins’ spa day. We just don’t know yet.
Not everyone could get a room, though. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, HBO and Max head Casey Bloys notes that Woody Harrelson couldn’t make the trip. “Mike White has had conversations with a lot of people, and Woody [Harrelson] was one of them,” Bloys said. “One of the issues when you’re shooting overseas is people’s schedules. You have most of the casting, though there are a couple more roles. But Woody is not one of them.”
While excitement for another season of The White Lotus remains high, it didn’t fair as well at this year’s Emmys. White Lotus received nominations in all major categories but only walked away with a win for Jennifer Coolidge, her second for the show. We assume her appearance is why White Lotus ran in the Drama Series category, not as an anthology as it did last year. This stinks of category fraud because it’s still an anthology series, but we’re willing to ignore it because Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series is rife with inconsistencies. Clean it up, Emmys.
It’s a problem Walton Goggins will hopefully solve next year when he brings that special Uncle Baby Billy magic to the world’s worst luxury hotel.