The White Lotus Season 2 is being revealed week by week on Showmax, with the first episode already up in late October/early November 2022. The original season of The White Lotus was the most awarded series at this year’s Emmys.
With an (almost) all-new cast, Season 2 trades Hawaii for Sicily, where a different group of ultra-wealthy vacationers will spend a week at a different – but just as exclusive – White Lotus resort.
Season 1 of the acclaimed HBO wealth satire took home 10 of its 20 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Directing and Writing, as well as Supporting Actress for Jennifer Coolidge, and Supporting Actor for Murray Bartlett, both of whom also won at the Critics Choice Awards
More than just the location and cast has changed this season. “Season 2 is decidedly sexier than Season 1,” says Teen Choice nominee Meghann Fahy (Sutton in The Bold Type), who USA Today is hailing as the breakout star this year. “The environment lends itself to that romantic summer vibe.”
Bedroom farce – with teeth
Series creator, writer and director Mike White agrees. “Sicily is the perfect place for romance and sexual politics. It was such a beautiful location and it just sold this kind of old world European summer vacation… Last season really got into privilege. This season, it’s more of a kind of bedroom farce – with teeth.”
“In Season 2,” Mike says, “I thought it would be interesting to have three generations of men travelling together and have the older men [played by Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham from Mythic Quest, Amadeus, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Emmy winner Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos] grappling with the reality that their sex drives have essentially ruined their legacies and families, while the grandson character, Albie Di Grasso [Adam DiMarco from The Magicians] is more, ‘I’m sorry, I actually don’t have a sex drive.’”
The only returning characters this season are Teen Choice nominee Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite, Get Shorty) as Greg, and – raise your glasses, please – Jennifer Coolidge, who reprises her “career-best” role as Tanya.
Characters you’ll love to hate
“Mostly I wanted to see her on a Vespa,” Mike laughs. “I wanted her in a mod ‘60s dress, scarf on her head, sunglasses — the ultimate gay-icon. And actually, all of this came straight from Jennifer. I asked her, ‘If we go to Italy, what do you want to do?’ and she’s like, ‘I just want to be on one of those Vespas while hot Italian guys in shark-skin suits light my cigarette.’ Okay, oh my god, we have to do that.”
The ensemble cast in The White Lotus Season 2 also includes People’s Choice winner Theo James (Divergent), BAFTA winner Tom Hollander (The Night Manager), and BAFTA nominee Will Sharpe (Landscapers, Giri/Haji). Of course, somebody needs to wrangle all these privileged monsters, and this season that falls to the likes of multi-award-winning Italian actress Sabrina Impacciatore as the harried hotel manager, and Haley Lu Richardson (Five Feet Apart) as Tanya’s personal assistant, Portia.
As with Season 1, there’ll be loads of characters you’ll love to hate. But, as Jennifer puts it, “Mike can write characters that don’t have a lot of redeeming qualities, and he gives them a break.”
What: The White Lotus Season 2
Where: Showmax
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