Hedging Our Bets on ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Set Location

Curious where The White Lotus Season 3 will end up? That’s a mystery left to the most sealed nondisclosure agreements. But we can’t help but guess and surmise at this point—and so should you. Based on the first two seasons, Mike White’s surprise HBO hit can always be counted on for four things: filthy rich characters; at least one dead body that’s teased in the first episode; graphic sex scenes; and a Four Seasons hotel.

In Season 1, the fictional White Lotus (yes, fictional—there are still people who think the hotel chain is real) was shot at the Four Seasons on Wailea Beach in Maui. Season 2 shifted from a social satire to something sexier and suspenseful, with an innocent-Americans-in-peril theme and a dramedy with echoes of Ian McEwan and Henry James’ “European” novels. Four Seasons’ San Domenico Palace, dramatically perched along the Sicilian coast in Taormina, was White’s choice—an inspired setting for sultry Mediterranean shades of jealousy, treachery, cultural misunderstandings, and hot sex.

So, time for a new continent? White has hinted as much, revealing that The White Lotus Season 3 will likely be set in Asia. “The first season kind of highlighted money, then the second season sex,” White says on “Unpacking Season 2: Episode 7″—the series extra. “I think the third season would be maybe a satirical and funny look at death and Eastern religion and spirituality. It feels like it could be a rich tapestry to do another round at White Lotus.”

It should be no surprise then that Four Seasons flies its flag at some of Southeast Asia’s most beguiling resorts, including a pair of beauties in Bali. There’s one in Sayan, surrounded by terraced rice paddies in the Ayung River Valley near Ubud, and another in Jimbaran on the beach. There are also several Four Seasons properties in Thailand—from northern rural (Chiang Mai) and jungle (Golden Triangle) settings to southern beachland (Ko Samui). Since Hindu and Buddhism—the predominant religions in Bali and Thailand, respectively—are especially rich in eschatology, and the burial rituals tend toward the elaborate, either location would likely work well for the series’ purposes.

“Clearly, The White Lotus favors resorts among the most spectacular in the world,” offers Romain Chanet, general manager of Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora in French Polynesia. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see a familiar landscape on the upcoming season.”

Hmm, would Chanet be praising a prospective shoot site other than a Four Seasons hotel with trigger words such as “spectacular” and “familiar”?

And might he be obliquely hinting that Season 3 could land a bit southeast of Asia in his South Pacific paradise—home to those dreamy overwater villas fanning out from a famous blue lagoon? Could be.

Is this an early tease worthy of the series itself? Talk amongst yourselves.

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By: Drew Limsky
Title: Hedging Our Bets on ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 Set Location
Sourced From: www.mensjournal.com/travel/white-lotus-season-3-set-location/
Published Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2023 22:01:02 +0000

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