‘The White Lotus’ Fans Have Their Own Theories for Season 3’s Location

White its bone-dry humor, all-star casting, and all-too-familiar cast of characters, HBO’s anthology drama series The White Lotus has enraptured viewers for a second, Sicily-based season in the wake of season one’s success. Even though the dramatic and twist-filled season two finale aired not even a month ago, fans are already clamoring for their next taste of Mike White’s brilliant satire seres—and with season three already greenlit by HBO, the biggest question now is where the third season will take place.

Why does the location of The White Lotus matter?

Thanks to the central conceit that the White Lotus is a chain of high-end resorts across the globe, The White Lotus as a series has infinite possibilities written into the narrative. Hypothetically, the show could go on forever: simply jumping from location to location, each season exploring the messy, seedy lives of the wealthy in a pristine White Lotus hotel.

Such narrative flexibility and built-in excuse for reinvention also allows series creator/writer Mike White to build each season of the show around different themes and ideas: in the HBO Postmortem, White revealed that the underlying theme of season one has revolved around the idea of wealth and money, while season two explored sex. From the commentary on Hawaiian overtourism to the use of classical Italian folklore about marriage, The White Lotus‘ setting helps inform the overarching themes of each season, blending regional cultural elements with White’s storytelling flare to create each central mystery.

Has Mike White said anything about the location of Season 3?

Thankfully, those looking for clues as to the whereabouts of the next season of The White Lotus have a strong place to start. In the aforementioned HBO Postmortem regarding the locations/themes of the first two seasons, White also indicated where he thought the series could go in season three: “I think the third season, it would be maybe a kind of satirical and funny look at death in Eastern religion and spirituality, it feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”

Specifically mentioning Eastern religion pretty conclusively rules out a number of conventionally popular European and American vacation destinations, like Paris, London, Cancun, Cabo, Tahiti, or Bora Bora. However, themes of Eastern religion don’t necessarily mean that season three will take place in the Eastern hemisphere: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and many other prominent eastern religions still have thriving presences in Western nations.

However, considering how prominent the roles of local food, architecture, decor, and social decorum have been in the previous two seasons, it seems most likely that The White Lotus season three will take viewers and wealthy guests to Asia.

Where do fans want The White Lotus Season 3 to take place?

Just because Mike White has indicated a direction for next season, though, doesn’t mean that fans aren’t coming up with their own ideas and far-flung predictions. A popular consensus online (especially TikTok, where creators have taken to making their own dream casts for season three) would see the White Lotus as a ritzy ski chalet in the middle of a winter paradise. Locations like Vail, St Moritz, Aspin, and the Swiss Alps are often tossed around as possible locales: though those particular areas wouldn’t quite fit white White’s ideas about incorporating Eastern religion.

But the constraint of being based in Eastern religion doesn’t mean the internet can’t get its ski chalet: there are plenty of high-brow ski destinations in Asia that could play home to a hypothetical third, snowy season of The White Lotus. Hokkaido, Japan, for example, is home to a number of luxury ski resorts, and the region’s Shinto and Buddhist religious ties could provide a wealth of subject matter of White to explore in the show’s writing. Until we get further confirmation from the writers and HBO, though, just where the next season of The White Lotus will take place is just as much of a mystery as which unlucky tourist will lose their life.

(image via HBO)