Mike White found The White Lotus season 3 idea during literal fever dream
White promises that season 3 will somehow be even crazier Jennifer Coolidge's boat party from season 2.
Photo: Fabio Lovino/HBO
It would be entirely accurate to characterize seasons one and two of The White Lotus as “a fever dream.” Season one had Armand’s simmering meltdown, his, er, encounter with Lukas Gage’s character, the birth in the office, and that infamous shit scene. Season two had Portia’s insane outfits and pretty much every word that came out of Tanya McQuoid’s mouth. (The Jennifer Coolidge character was also kooky in season one, but season two and “Peppa Pig” took things to a whole new level.)
But if you thought all that was crazy, hoo boy—we have no idea what we’re in for with season three. In an interview with Time, show creator Mike White revealed that season three was conceived out of a literal fever dream, when he came down with bronchitis while location-scouting in Thailand. “They put me on a nebulizer… I didn’t sleep for like two nights, and by the next morning I was like, ‘I think I have the plot,'” he said. “The season is pretty much what happened that night.”
The delirium of that 48 hours apparently helped White land on an ending, which for him is “always the hardest part” of writing an anthology series. “And so I was like, ‘I guess we’re shooting in Thailand,'” he recalled.
The season, which returning star Natasha Rothwell (season one’s spa manager Belinda) called “expansive,” features a genuinely mind-blowing roster of talent including Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Scott Glenn, Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Aimee Lou Wood, Blackpink singer Lisa, and more. “I do feel like the other seasons were a rehearsal for this one,” White teased. “There’s stuff that I’ve never directed before.”
The differences will be felt right away, as Time writes that this season’s prologue “suggests a more terrifying escalation looms.” And that’s in comparison to the multiple dead bodies that pop up in seasons one and two! There will also be some “elaborate action sequences” that are enough of a departure from the show’s past for White to insist to the outlet, “I’m not Ridley Scott.” We’ll figure out what the hell that means when The White Lotus returns on HBO and Max February 16.