'The White Lotus' Season 3 Invited Blackpink's Lisa to the Resort

This story contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of The White Lotus.

A new vacationer has booked their stay at the White Lotus. According to Variety, Blackpink's Lisa is joining season 3's cast. The K-pop singer, born Pranpriya Manobal in Buriram, Thailand, will star alongside newcomers Parker Posey (The Staircase), Jason Isaacs (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris), Leslie Bibb (Jupiter's Legacy), Dom Hetrakul (The Outrage), Michelle Monaghan (Mission: Impossible — Fallout), Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age), and Tayme Thapthimthong (Farang).

Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has ended, creator Mike White is as excited as you are to get season 3 rolling. Deadline reported that filming is scheduled to begin in February, with White also teasing a major comeback. “I’m seriously finishing scripts,” he 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.”

Natasha Rothwell will also reprise her role as the spa manager, Belinda. She told Vanity Fair she was excited about season 3 after reading through the material. “I gasped out loud a minimum of five times and this was just me reading them,” she 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."

Read on for everything we know about The White Lotus season 3.

Where Will the Next The White Lotus Be Filmed?

According to Variety, every season of The White Lotus has been filmed at a Four Seasons resort. If White continues that tradition he’ll have plenty of options to choose from for season 3, as the company has hotels stationed in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, and The Golden Triangle. The resorts each have a different setting, so depending on White’s plans for season 3, we could see the next batch of travelers' lounge in the city, countryside, jungle, or another beach.

Earlier this year, White, mentioned that he toured Asia in search of a new filming location. Due to some complex tax incentives, however, he chose Thailand. "We saw some absolutely stunning locations all over Honshu," Toho producer, Georgina Pope, told reporters at the Tokyo Film Festival. "The showrunner loved it all, and I was feeling very confident that I had it all in the bag... At the time in Japan, we had no [tax] incentive in place at all. I could not respond with a concrete answer. All I could hear was the sound of a 35 million dollar project flying out the window."

White joins a group including Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible: Fallout and Martin Scorsese's Silence, who have also left the country in favor of Thailand. Still, HBO head Casey Bloys is reportedly amped about the next round of vacationers, even though production had to go with their second location choice. Though further details are still under wraps, the network CEO revealed in a Series Mania keynote interview that White's vision for season 3 was a "really fun idea." The next installment is shaping up to be a “satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality.” If there's anything these rich vacationers need, it's spiritual healing.

What’s Next For The White Lotus Cast?

The White Lotus is an anthology series (meaning, of course, that the seasons don’t fully connect to one another) so just about anything can happen in season 3. But we might already have an idea as to a certain storyline the next season will follow up on. Not one to let us recover at home and properly pour one out for Tanya and the handful of men she murdered, White started merrily talking about the next season of the series in his post-episode interview. And guess what? Sounds like season 3 of The White Lotus may very well act as a quasi-sequel to the finale's fateful showdown.

"I think as far as like, what happens to Greg and the conspiracy of Tanya's death, it's possible that I think Portia is scared enough to just leave it alone, but the fact that all of those guys die on the boat, it feels like there's gotta be somebody who's gonna track it back down to Greg. But maybe you'll have to wait to find out what happens."

What can we expect thematically going forward? Well, the first iteration of The White Lotus used the backdrop of a (tense as hell) vacation to explore larger societal themes. Set on a beautiful Hawaiian island, the show illustrated how travelers often visit a new destination, abuse its resources—and in turn, its people—then leave without a second thought. Season 2, I think we can all agree, waded through the powers of attraction and sex. Here's what White said could be in store for the third go-round:

Who Else Could Be in Season 3 of The White Lotus?

Each season of The White Lotus brings in a new ensemble—aside from Jennifer Coolidge (Tanya), Jon Gries (Greg), and now, Rothwell (Belinda). It seems White has a pattern of bringing back the most complex characters and fan favorites. Coolidge performance as Tanya McQuoid, a distressed multimillionaire, earned Coolidge her first Emmy in 2022. Given Tanya's fate, more Tanya time is obviously not on our future vacation itineraries, unless it's via flashback.

Season 3 will also feature Natasha Rothwell as Belinda, the beloved White Lotus spa manager from the first season. When we last saw her, she'd just been scammed by Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) after a botched business deal. Fans of the series saw Tanya's untimely demise in the season 2 finale. Now that she's out of the picture, it will be interesting to see how Belinda is worked back into the story.

As far as other potential cast members go, Evan Peters and Hayden Panettiere have both expressed their interest in joining the show. "I want to do it so bad," Panettiere told E! News. "[Jennifer Coolidge] is my favorite, I love her. I will be her anything—bag holder, shoe shiner, I will be her guardian angel, I will be her long-lost child. I will be whatever she wants me to be." I feel the same way, but maybe Panettiere hasn't seen the end of season 2 yet

While speaking with Deadline, White Lotus producer David Bernard revealed that the American Horror Story star was actually in talks to play Ethan in season 2. "That part was the last part we cast in the season, and originally it was supposed to be Evan Peters," Bernard explained. "But for whatever reason—scheduling or timing —it didn’t work out." The role eventually went to Will Sharpe, who played the character perfectly, but that doesn’t mean Peters can't be revisited for future casting, right??

With Coolidge out of the running, it's fun to think about which guest from season 2 might be fit for another vacation. Our money's on Michael Imperioli—and it sounds like he'd be down. "I don't want to think about it too much," he said to Esquire. "Because the idea of that makes me so happy. I don't want to be disappointed…I would want nothing more than that. I just loved working with Mike so much."

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