‘The White Lotus’ Lands a K-Pop Star for Season 3

The White Lotus is heading to Thailand for season 3, and the guests are officially checking in for the next installment of Mike White’s hit HBO series.

According to Variety, the latest addition to the cast is Lalisa Manobal—better known to K-pop fans as Lisa from the beloved South Korean group Blackpink. Manobal is making her acting debut in The White Lotus season 3, following in the footsteps of fellow group member Jennie Ruby Lane (a.k.a. Jennie), who appeared in HBO’s The Idol.

HBO previously announced the first cast members joining the next installment of The White Lotus, and while Jennifer Coolidge’s name is understandably absent from the list, White has enlisted another comedic great from the Christopher Guest universe: Parker Posey. That definitely takes the sting out of losing Coolidge. Carrie Coon, who currently stars on HBO’s The Gilded Age, has also signed on for season 3.

Joining Posey and Coon are Michelle Monaghan, Jason Isaacs, Leslie Bibb, Walton Goggins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Dom Hetrakul, Tayme Thapthimthong, Christian Friedel, Julian Kostov, Morgana O’Reilly, Lek Patravadi, Shalini Peiris, Scott Glenn, Francesca Corney, Nicholas Duvernay, Arnas Fedaravičius, Aimee Lou Wood, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Sam Nivola.

In addition to the newcomers, Natasha Rothwell is reprising her season 1 role as Belinda Lindsey, a masseuse who works in the spa. In season 1, Tanya McQuoid (Coolidge) manipulated Belinda into providing her with companionship, offering to fund her private business and then rescinding the offer just as casually.

Previously, it seemed like White might be looking for a way to bring Jennifer Coolidge back for season 3. “Jennifer is my friend and everybody loved her in the first season, and I was like, ‘I can’t go to Italy without Jennifer.’ And maybe that’s still the case,” White told Deadline. “Like, maybe you can’t go to Japan without Jennifer, either. There are so many fun actors we’ve worked with so far, so it’s just kind of like who’s available.”

Season 1 of The White Lotus was set in Hawaii and featured Connie Britton, Murray Bartlett, Steve Zahn, and Sydney Sweeney. The Sicily-set season 2 premiered in 2022 and featured Michael Imperioli, Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Will Sharpe, Haley Lu Richardson, and Sabrina Impacciatore.

While there’s no specific release date for The White Lotus season 3, production is set to begin this month, so we could see the new season before the end of the year.

(featured image: Han Myung-Gu, WireImage)