The newest season of “The White Lotus” just welcomed some new faces, and Maria Shriver is one proud mama because of it.
Patrick Schwarzenegger, Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola and Aimee Lou Wood will be joining the cast of the Emmy-winning drama for its third season, TODAY.com confirmed Jan. 17.
Sharing an announcement on Instagram, the former TODAY anchor congratulated her son, Schwarzenegger, for being cast in one of her “favorite shows of all time.”
“Patrick, Patrick, Patrick! I’m so proud of you!” Shriver began her post, naming Schwarzenegger’s recent achievements like getting engaged and recently becoming the face of Emporio Armani. “Wow!!! All that hard work and determination is really paying off.”
After encouraging him to promote some of her brands and work, Shriver continued, “I can’t wait to visit you on set ( am I allowed to visit you on set?) and can’t wait to get all the spoilers from you (you will tell me, right? I am your mother after all!) Wow, wow, wow! See you at the White Lotus!”
Shriver then added the hashtag, “#proudmomalert.”
Earlier this month, HBO announced that Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Carrie Coon will also be part of the Season Three cast, as well as Natasha Rothwell, who played spa manager Belinda Lindsey in Season One.
Season Two of the hit series had viewers gasping, theorizing, dissecting fashion and dreaming of Sicily, all while trying to solve which character winds up dead.
Creator Mike White told Entertainment Weekly in November, nearly a year after the Season Two finale of “The White Lotus” aired, that viewers can expect Season Three to be even “crazier.”
“It’s going to be a supersized ‘White Lotus,’” White said. “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. ... I’m super excited about the content of the season.”
Rothwell backed up the hype, revealing during an interview with Vanity Fair in December that she “gasped” while reading the scripts.
“I gasped out loud a minimum of five times, and this was just me reading them,” Rothwell said. “The scripts are a testament to Mike’s skill and ability to tell the most smart and entertaining stories. I mean, everything that he does is like a lesson to me as an actor and a performer. And as a writer myself, he takes folks on a journey. Everyone needs to buckle up, because it’s going to get real!”
“The White Lotus” first premiered in July 2021 and has won multiple Emmys, including one for outstanding limited series.
Here’s everything we know about “The White Lotus” Season Three.
Who will be in the cast of Season Three of 'The White Lotus'?
The show's third season will feature both Hollywood vets and newcomers.
This month, the following actors have been named as members of the Season Three cast: Parker Posey, Leslie Bibb, Dom Hetrakul, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Tayme Thapthimthong, Carrie Coon, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola and Aimee Lou Wood.
Deadline reported on Jan. 22 that Francesca Corney, Nicholas Duvernay and Arnas Fedaravičius had also joined the cast.
TODAY.com confirmed in April 2023 that Natasha Rothwell will also return.
Fans of the show know that its cast changes every season — with the exception of Jennifer Coolidge, who played the wealthy and somewhat stunted Tanya McQuoid, and Jon Gries, who played Tanya's husband, Greg Hunt, in Season One and Season Two.
After Tanya’s stunning demise, it seemed unlikely Coolidge would return, though she said during Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series that she wished creator White isn't done with Greg’s character arc.
“My hope for (co-star) Jon (Gries) is that he’s not finished with Greg,” Coolidge said. “I hope there’s some comeuppance for evil Greg. I think he should, I don’t know, end up in a meat-grinding machine.”
In her speech after winning the Emmy Award for best supporting actress in a drama series for her performance as Tanya, Coolidge said White called her character “definitely dead.”
In a final reference to the show, Coolidge also thanked “all the evil gays” for her Emmy win.
Rothwell's return as Belinda continues the anthology series’ subtle pattern of bringing back one familiar face amid an all-new cast each season.
White had told Entertainment Weekly he was open to cast members returning for Season Three — and beyond.
“It would be easy to just be full-on anthology, but I think it’s more fun to have little threads through the show,” said White. “If the show goes on for a couple of seasons, it would be fun to have an all-star season.”
Where will Season Three take place?
Certain things about "The White Lotus" are not expected to change — starting with the format. Each season takes place in a different White Lotus luxury resort located around the world, and begins with the discovery of a dead body.
When Meghann Fahy’s character, Daphne, mentioned in the Season Two finale that she wanted to vacation in the Maldives, fans speculated that the show would be set in the island nation next.
The first season was in Hawaii; the second, Sicily. And the third will be filmed in Thailand, as announced Jan. 5.
The show’s first two seasons were shot at Four Seasons resorts in Hawaii and Italy. Production on Season Three will begin in February in and around Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok “and will follow a new group of guests at another White Lotus property,” HBO said.
The Thailand news comes after White teased a continental change for the third season.
“The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” White said in an interview with HBO that aired right after the Season Two finale. “I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”
White also hinted at pivoting to a country in Asia during a red carpet interview with Deadline in October 2022.
“We just turned in our last episode to the network, so it’s hard to think about the next race,” White said. “But if we did, I think it’d be fun to maybe go to a whole different continent. We did Europe. Maybe Asia ... would be fun.”
When will Season Three premiere?
The new season likely won't be premiering until 2025.
HBO and Max chairman/CEO Casey Bloys told reporters at a press event on Nov. 2 that the writers and actors strikes impacted production schedules, including for “The White Lotus.”
“‘White Lotus’ Season Three probably would have been in play for 2024, it’s 2025,” Bloys said, according to Variety.
With a year until the next season, viewers can always rewatch Seasons One and Two on Max.
The plot isn't known — but this part will stay
Not much information is out yet about the third season, beyond White’s teaser about taking a “satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality.”
White told Entertainment Weekly in September 2022 that he might return to his original idea he'd pitched for Season Two, which had to do with politics and power.
“I might still do it down the road maybe, if they give us a third season,” White said.
After visiting Sicily, White decided to change the plot to fit the “vibe” of the country.
“The kind of mythology of Sicily, at least from the point of view of Americans, is the archetypal sexual politics and role play that you associate with, like, opera and the mafia and Italian romance. I felt like it should be more focused on men and women and relationships and adultery and have an operatic feel to it, so I pivoted,” White said.
