Carrie Coon Confirms “The White Lotus” Season 3 is About Death
Mike White’s The White Lotus season 3 will once again skewer the clueless rich as the first two seasons did with such gleeful precision, but it’s being built around a single theme just as seasons one and two did. This isn’t just pure speculation; it comes from season 3 cast member Carrie Coon, who will be one of the tourists idling away at the White Lotus in Thailand.
White’s anthology series has depicted both the staff and the guests of the titular White Lotus resort—Hawaii in season 1 and Sicily in season 2—with most of the guests falling somewhere on the Extreme Bozo end of the rich and entitled spectrum. Yet there’s been more to White’s satire than merely pummeling the obnoxious jet-set; the Hawaii season was, indeed, primarily about money, while the Sicily season was focused on sex (appropriate considering the location). From season one to two, only two characters carried over, Jennifer Coolerdige‘s Tanya and Jon Gries’ Greg Hunt. And sure, death was present in both seasons, but it wasn’t the primary focus, even if season two opened with some soggy dead bodies floating just off the beach at the resort.
Speaking with Vanity Fair, Coon revealed that season 3 will be more directly dealing with death than the previous two seasons:
“It’s a huge cast. It’s an international cast. And I think he’s [Mike White] playing with some really interesting dynamics. I think it’s something he would continue to do if they let him because I think he would like to get bigger and more international and put together weirder groups of people—that’s what he’s passionate about. And I think that’s important in this world, to see people banging up against each other in this way. Of course, he’s satirizing rich white people, and he’s doing it very well. He’s really speaking to people who need to be spoken to in a really interesting way. He had a season about money; he had a season about sex. And this is his season about death. So here we are in this Buddhist country. It bumps up against some things in my own life right now that are really interesting to think about, and so I’m feeling incredibly gratified. And my family is incredibly stressed.”
“It’s going to be a supersized White Lotus,” White told Entertainment Weekly about season 3. “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.”
There will also be a direct link to the two past seasons—Natasha Rothwell, one of the cast members in season one, will return for season 3. Coon and Rothwell are joined by a stellar ensemble that includes Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Parker Posey, Tayme Thapthimthong, and Dom Hetrakul in lead roles. The full cast includes Walton Goggins, Amy Lou Wood, Iris Apatow, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola, Christian Freidel, Nicholas Duvernay, Arnas Fedaravičius, Scott Glenn, Lisa Manobal, Julian Kostov, and Sarah Catherine Hook.
For more on The White Lotus, check out these stories:
HBO’s “The White Lotus” Begins Casting For Season 3
“The White Lotus” Executive Producer Reveals Season 3 Almost Certainly Set in Asia
Featured image: Carrie Coon attends the The 63rd Annual Obie Awards at Terminal 5 on May 21, 2018 in New York City.
