Series Creator Mike White Reveals Why ‘The White Lotus’ Season 2 Will Have New Cast and Different Location
HBO's miniseries The White Lotus has been picked for the second season. Although the rich vacationers' drama was originally advertised as a limited series, the network has now officially renewed The White Lotus for Season 2.
The announcement came after the series, starring Alexandra Daddario, Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, and Jennifer Coolidge, ranked as the #1 series on HBO Max.
Mike White's directorial venture follows the lives of the staff and guests at a Hawaiian resort over the span of a week.
"But with each passing day, a darker complexity emerges in these picture-perfect travelers, the hotel’s cheerful employees and the idyllic locale itself," its press release read.
The six-episode miniseries aired its Season 1 on HBO every Sunday, starting from July 11, 2021.
‘The White Lotus’ Season 2: Cast and Location
In a public release, the network revealed that the second season of The White Lotus would have big changes, including the cast and location. The statement released by HBO read,
The next chapter of The White Lotus leaves Hawaii behind and follows a different group of vacationers as they jet to another White Lotus property and settle in temporarily amongst its inhabitants.
As reported in the statement, the first season was set in Hawaii, exploring different characters of the series on vacation at the vicious White Lotus resort.
While the extended cast of Season 1 included Jake Lacy, Fred Hechinger, Brittany O'Grady, Natasha Rothwell, Sydney Sweeney, Steve Zahn, and Molly Shannon, the cast for Season 2 is yet to be finalized.
White’s Thoughts on Season 2
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly before the renewal, the series creator, writer, and director White said bringing another season of the series meant a hard effort of starting from scratch and going through the whole process again.
He said he wanted to do it since he felt there was a way to get at some new themes "and do it in a way that feels fresh from this one."
"And so I'd definitely let that be known to HBO," he added.
When he was asked the idea behind changing the cast and location, White answered by saying that it would now be expensive to film a whole season in Maui, an Island in Hawaii.
He explained that the first season was affordable to film there due to the cheap rates in the pandemic.
"So yeah, it would have to be The White Lotus: Kyoto or something. Which would be fun too, because we could get into culture clash ideas and stuff like that. So I would definitely do it and I'm waiting to get the word from them," he said in excitement.
Season 1 Reviews
The first season of The White Lotus received a mixed review from critics.
Reviewing for Variety, critic Caroline Framke described the show as “a fascinating trick of light that bends its interlocking stories with the kind of impressive dexterity we’ve come to expect from White. By the time you get used to this show’s rhythms, it’s already shifted into something else entirely.”
On the other hand, EW's Darren Franich said that the creator, White, passionately believed ridiculous people are capable of profound epiphanies, which meant his least likable characters could break your heart.
"But on The White Lotus, epiphanies won't save the day. Every person is an island, and the waters are rising," he wrote while giving a B+ rating to the series.