The White Lotus season 4 was officially announced earlier this year, almost a month before this year’s trip to Thailand hit your screen, with HBO programming executive Francesca Orsi suggesting that the next destination will likely be âsomewhere in Europe.â A sojourn in France, perhaps? Or a return to Italy?
Whatever the case, season four will present a unique creative challenge for writer Mike White. Fans are familiar enough with the White Lotus formula by this point to know, for the most part, what to expect from itâso how can he continue to subvert expectations, implement twists and keep us all on our toes, the cornerstones of any murder-mystery worth its weight in intrigue? Perhaps an entirely new location would prove fruitful. For what it’s worth, White has said that he wants to move away from the âcrashing wavesâ aesthetic of the exotic, palm-decorated hotels the series has visited so far. How better else than to go somewhere with a ton of snow? It wouldn’t exactly be a stretch for there to be a White Lotus Ski Resort somewhere in the Swiss Alps.
It’s not that the series requires total, top-to-bottom reinvention, but this season, for the first time in the show’s history, it felt like fans online were onto Mike White’s schemes from the beginning, and many of the finale’s biggest twists were forecast by Twitter prognosticators in the weeks leading up to its air date. That’s just one reason why the series may benefit from a zhuzh; it’s just common logic that any media property which cautiously sticks to the blueprint will eventually become stale. Fortunately, season 4 also feels like a natural point to start reimagining what the show can look like, and what it can be.
In retrospect, the first three seasons might be taken as a loosely-connected trilogy, conjoined at various points by the presence of Tanya (Jennifer Coolidge) â both literally and in spirit â kindly spa manager Belinda (Natasha Rothwell), and her devious husband Greg (Jon Gries). Their story seems to conclude nicely in the finale: Belinda and son Zion (Nicholas Duvernay) get their $5 million hush-money payout and head home to enjoy being rich, while Greg is allowed to remain in Thailand as âGary,â despite having more than likely killed his wife. It’s a win-win that serves as a satisfying enough end to the Tanya arcâwell, as satisfying as it can be, without Greg getting his deathly comeuppance.
Will that happen in season four? We wouldn’t write it off entirely. And if White does elect to bring back a different character from the first three seasons, Zion seems a decent candidate, now that he is newly rich and can serve as a living metaphor for how access to mega-bucks corrodes our sense of morality. Nevertheless, the series as a whole would be better served by a reset: leave the old characters behind, rethink the setting, and breathe some life into The White Lotus that will keep it as appointment television for seasons to come. Our money is on David Duchovny hitting the slopes.
Here’s everything else we know about The White Lotus season four.
Who will be in The White Lotus season 4?
No one has been confirmed for the cast of season four yet, but expect the internet to be flooded with theories and dream cast lists in the coming days. We’ve already offered our two cents on a returning character (Nicholas Duvernay’s Zion) and an actor we’d like to join the cast (David Duchovny). Some others that just feel The White Lotus? Let’s pick from the cream of the crop of character actors: Steve Buscemi would seem a go-to pick, and there’s seldom a scene that Margot Martindale doesn’t light up with her presence. And Paul Giamatti would kill it as one of The White Lotus‘ signature fuck-up dads.
When will The White Lotus season 4 come out?
There isn’t an itinerary at this point, but it’ll be at least a year or two. You can always get yourself down to an IRL Four Seasons in the meantime.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.