It’s been two years since the final episode of the second season of The White Lotus aired and we’ve since been eagerly awaiting the next instalment of entitled white people doing very bad things.
This time round, in season three, the drama will unfold on the grounds of the fictional hotel chain resort in Thailand, with a cohort of friends, families and lovers, falling in and out of intrigue and suspense. Let’s take a brief look at what we learn from the trailer.
Characters
In season one, the family vacationers consisted of Steve Zahn and Connie Britton and their kids. In season two, it was the intergenerational boys trip for F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli and Adam DiMarco. In the upcoming season, Parker Posey and Jason Isaacs are the two parents taking their three adult children on vacation. The kids are played by Patrick Schwarzenegger, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 31-year old son, Sarah Catherine Hook, the 29-year old lead actor of this year’s Cruel Intentions, and Sam Nivola, who is the son of actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola.
“The lovers” in season three are played by 53-year old actor Walton Goggins and 29-year old British actor Aimee Lou Wood, from Sex Education. Goggins appears to be struggling to reach some spiritual enlightenment with his much younger happy-go-lucky girlfriend. This aligns with what creator Mike White’s projected a few years back when he said the third season would be “a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”
When HBO Max dropped the trailer on X, it captioned it with: “Seeking peace can be a trip.”
One of the most scintillating plot threads in season two was the couple pairing between four appallingly attractive young people, including Theo James, Aubrey Plaza and Meghann Fahy. This time, we have a trio of white blonde women, who are vacationing together after a long absence from each other’s lives. Clips from the trailer suggest this is going to be another juicy storyline, thick with personal jealousy, rivalry, and past incidents re-surfaced. The three actors playing the role of these friends are 48-year old Michelle Monaghan, (Made of Honour, Mission Impossible III) 50-year old Leslie Bibb (Iron Man, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) and 43-year old Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Gilded Age).
Reprising her role from season one as the spa manager at the Hawaiian resort, Natasha Rothwell returns to find her own spiritual awakening. “I’m starting to feel like something good is going to come out of this,” she says in the trailer, smiling at a male hotel staff member. Is romance on the horizon for her? Other cast members causing noise online include Blackpink member Lisa, who is credited as Lalisa Manobal in the show.
The plot
The trailer doesn’t give away much about what the characters will experience during their stay at the resort, but it’s safe to say that there will be sex, drugs, crime (ie. a murder!) and lots of interpersonal disputes. Family members will be tested, friends will fall out. In between all the chaos, the character will indulge in a combination of hard-core partying at night and attending “stress-management meditations” by day.
During the trailer, a Buddhist monk says: “Everyone runs from pain towards pleasure. But they get there only to find more pain.” So it appears that our characters will all be dragged through some pretty harrowing experiences.
The trailer also features a shot of a body bag, indicating that one of the characters will not make it out alive. Who will it be? Tune into Binge on February 16, 2025 to find out.