The White Lotus


The White Lotus is an American black comedy drama anthology television series created, written, and directed by Mike White that premiered on HBO on July 11, 2021. The series follows the exploits of the guests and staff during a week spent at a fictional luxury global resort hotel chain called "The White Lotus". Each season features a different ensemble cast. Jennifer Coolidge, Natasha Rothwell, and Jon Gries appear in more than one season. The first season was filmed and set in Hawaii, the second in Sicily, and the third in Thailand. The upcoming fourth season will be filmed and set in southern France.
The White Lotus was greenlit in October 2020 as a miniseries but was adapted to an anthology series by HBO in August 2021: its second season aired from October 30 to December 11, 2022, and its third season from February 16 to April 6, 2025, after being delayed by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. It is available on HBO Max at the same time as the linear broadcast.
The series has been acclaimed by critics for its writing, acting, characters, humor, and production values and has received several accolades: it has won 16 Primetime Emmy Awards—including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series—and two Golden Globes, including Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film. Coolidge won several awards for her performance in the first two seasons, including two Primetime Emmys and a Golden Globe. Murray Bartlett also won an Emmy for his performance in the first season, while White won three Emmys for his writing, directing, and producing.

Synopsis

Each season is set at a different White Lotus resort hotel, and is mostly self-contained, with some characters returning. Each season tells the story of the guests and staff during a week at the hotel. Their interactions are affected by various personal and social issues. As the days pass, a darker complexity emerges in the hotel's employees, their wealthy guests, and the idyllic locale.

Cast and characters

Each season of The White Lotus features a different ensemble cast, with only the following three actors featured in more than one season:
  • Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya McQuoid
  • Natasha Rothwell as Belinda Lindsey
  • Jon Gries as Greg Hunt / "Gary"

    Season 1

  • Sydney Sweeney as Olivia Mossbacher
  • Steve Zahn as Mark Mossbacher

    Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2022)

Season 3 (2025)

Production

Development

Development of The White Lotus began after the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, when HBO head of programming Casey Bloys asked Mike White whether he had any ideas for a show that could be shot in a bubble environment under lockdown conditions. The show's concept was "partly inspired" by White's work on an earlier proposed series, The Tears of St. Patsy, that was not picked up by a network and would have featured Jennifer Coolidge "as a frustrated actor navigating a dangerous world".
The initial problem White faced was where to set and shoot the show. White did not like commuting to a San Fernando Valley studio to shoot Enlightened and wanted to take his next HBO project to exotic locations. The first idea was Australia, but eight-week-long work visas were not long enough to shoot a full season. The second idea was Hawaii. At the time, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts was the only hotel operator in Hawaii willing to allow HBO to take over a property for 13 weeks to shoot a new television series with an unknown plot. No scripts had been finished and all the production team had was a "nondescript first episode", but the show promised to bring the hotel some money, which it preferred to staying closed.
At the beginning, "there was no money to make the show", so the producers staffed it with an ensemble cast where "everyone is treated the same", paid the same, and gets "alphabetical billing". All actors have to audition for the show, and they audition separately; there are no chemistry tests. The cast has to make it work when they finally meet at a Four Seasons resort. All regular cast members work "at scale"—reportedly, roughly $40,000 per episode as of season 3—and that rule is "not negotiable". The producers know some actors cannot accept such conditions and "can't hold it against people who need to make a living", but imposing this system up front and continuing it into subsequent seasons enabled them to focus on casting "people who want to do the project for the right reasons".
The show has changed locations and casts each season, with very little continuity between them apart from the show's basic elements: "a social satire and a murder mystery" set at a White Lotus resort that begins with an unidentified corpse. The consistent theme is a "semi-satirical" tone, but each season has been radically different from the others, requiring "fans to transfer their loyalty to an almost entirely new show". Of the lack of continuity, White said: "This is, like, my dream gig. Because I can burn down the house at the end of every season and begin again". Before production began on each season, White stayed at the resort to do research and write the scripts.
On October 19, 2020, HBO gave The White Lotus a limited series order that consisted of six episodes. The series was created, written and directed by White, who also serves as executive producer alongside David Bernad and Nick Hall.
On August 10, 2021, HBO renewed the series for a second season, which has seven episodes.
On November 18, 2022, HBO renewed the series for a third season. It was announced that the season would take place in Thailand. The third season's production was disrupted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, resulting in its release being delayed to 2025. The story that season originally mentioned that one character had a nonbinary child, but this was cut due to a political "vibe shift" coinciding with the 2024 election of President Donald Trump. White said "there's a lot of stuff that ended up being cut" from every episode. As written and filmed, the episodes were coming in at about an hour and 40 minutes. He needed to be "hard on the material", speed the narrative, and get episode lengths down to about 60 minutes, though they were still "bulging" with plot points.
During filming in Thailand, White pitched a fourth season over dinner in Phuket to Bloys, now the chairman and chief executive officer of HBO, and Francesca Orsi, executive vice president for drama programming. On January 22, 2025, ahead of the third-season premiere, HBO renewed the series for a fourth season. In February, Orsi said that they were about to start scouting locations for the fourth season and that a return to Europe was "likely".

Casting

Upon the limited series order announcement, Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, Alexandra Daddario, Fred Hechinger, Jake Lacy, Brittany O'Grady, Natasha Rothwell, Sydney Sweeney, and Steve Zahn were cast. On October 30, 2020, Molly Shannon, Jon Gries, Jolene Purdy, Kekoa Kekumano, and Lukas Gage joined the cast in recurring roles.
Upon the announcement of the second season, HBO announced that a predominantly new cast of characters would be at another White Lotus property for the second season, though White had said a few cast members from the first season might return as their characters. On October 15, 2021, Coolidge was reported to be set to return for the second season. In January 2022, Michael Imperioli, Aubrey Plaza, F. Murray Abraham, Adam DiMarco, Tom Hollander, and Haley Lu Richardson were confirmed to star in the second season. In February 2022, Theo James, Meghann Fahy, Will Sharpe, and Leo Woodall joined the cast. In March 2022, Beatrice Grannò, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Simona Tabasco joined the cast.
Upon the third-season renewal, producers confirmed that there would be a new cast of characters at another White Lotus resort. In April 2023, Rothwell was reported to be reprising her role as Belinda for the season. In January 2024, it was announced that Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Dom Hetrakul, Tayme Thapthimthong, Carrie Coon, Miloš Biković, Christian Friedel, Morgana O'Reilly, Lek Patravadi, Shalini Peiris, Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aimee Lou Wood, Francesca Corney, Nicholas Duvernay, and Arnas Fedaravičius had joined the cast. Biković was dropped from the cast on February 2 due to his alleged support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and replaced by Julian Kostov. In February 2024, Scott Glenn and Lalisa Manobal were cast. In March 2024, Charlotte Le Bon joined the cast to replace Corney.
In December 2025, Alexander Ludwig and AJ Michalka were cast for the fourth season. In January 2026, Steve Coogan, Caleb Jonte Edwards, Helena Bonham Carter, Chris Messina, and Marissa Long joined cast for the fourth season.

Filming

The series is mainly filmed at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. The creation of the show during the pandemic resulted in two major differences from the traditional process for shooting American television shows. First, American filmmakers often control costs by filming establishing shots at expensive locations and then the majority of shots on sound stages in cheaper locations. Second, when a lengthy shoot on location is necessary, the cast normally stays in long-term rented accommodations away from the set. In the case of The White Lotus, the first season's success meant that White was able to insist on continuing to shoot on location at Four Seasons resorts, despite the cost. Another change carried over from the first season is that the cast stays at the Four Seasons resort for the duration of filming, meaning they actually live together on set for several months in a luxury "theatre camp" atmosphere. This became expensive for some of the regular cast members, since HBO pays for hotel rooms but not incidental expenses.
Principal photography for the first season began in October 2020 in Hawaii under COVID-19 guidelines. By November 21, 2020, the series was halfway through filming at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea and was scheduled to film in December at locations around Maui.
The second season was filmed at the Four Seasons in Taormina, Sicily, Italy. Having filmed in a tightly secured bubble for the first season, the producers were not strict enough with script security during the second season; for example, too many people on set knew it would be the final season for Coolidge's character, Tanya. For the third season, the script supervisor wrote "crazy fake endings" that were distributed on set, and only the actors involved in the scenes knew which endings were real.
The third season was filmed in Thailand, in part because the series received a $4.4 million tax incentive for filming there. Filming began in February 2024, mainly at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, with other locations including Bangkok and Phuket, and wrapped in August. This was the first season for which Four Seasons openly promoted its connection to the show, since the company had seen increased web traffic, bookings, and occupancy rates at its Maui and Sicily resorts after they were featured on the show. In November 2025, HBO confirmed that the fourth season is set in France.