The White Lotus season 3 might be moving to Asia

Warning: spoilers ahead for the finale of The White Lotus season two. 

Sure, the second season of The White Lotus literally only just wrapped but we're already hungry for more. Luckily, creator Mike White has given some hints about where his next luxury resort could be planted and what themes the series will address. 

While season one jetted us to Hawaii, and season two planted us amongst the storied palazzos of Italy, White thinks heading even further east could be the resort's next expansion. In a clip unpacking the explosive and surprising season finale, he revealed his thought process behind the decision in a post-finale featurette for HBO. “The first season kind of highlighted money, and then the second season is sex,” White said. “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.”

Whether anyone will carry over into the next series is another looming question though. Jennifer Coolidge's erratic Tanya was the only character to resort-hop between seasons one and two (bar her absent and now-villainous husband Greg (Jon Gries)), but the shocking revelation that it was her body in the water at the start of the series means that link is now severed. Speaking of her untimely death, White continued in the post-finale debrief that Italy felt a fitting place to put the beloved character to bed. 

“I was thinking, it’d be so fun to bring Tanya back because she’s such a great character, but maybe that’s the journey for her, a journey to death. Not that I really wanted to kill Tanya because I love her as a character and obviously love Jennifer, but I just felt like, we’re going to Italy, she’s such a diva — a larger-than-life female archetype — it felt like we could devise our own operatic conclusion to Tanya’s life and her story". Her death had been foreshadowed heavily across the episodes, not least when she was moved to tears by the opera Madame Butterfly where, to no surprise, the main female protagonist dies in the end. 

There's still scope for Greg to make his unwanted return, especially after his murderous plan to kill off Tanya and make away with her money left his four accomplices dead on a yacht, and Tanya unceremoniously floating in the water after a misstep off the boat. Whether he ends up with her money by virtue of her dying, or is implicated in the plot to kill her, really depends on the moral compass of frazzled assistant Portia (Hayley Lu Richardson). As one of the only people vaguely aware of the plot against Tanya, she could be at risk. Jack told her to keep her head down, but whether she's able to maintain her silence could breed an interesting plot development. 

There's also potential that the tense foursome of Ethan (Will Sharpe), Harper (Aubrey Plaza), Cameron (Theo James) and Daphne (Meghann Fahy) could head on vacation together again, though whether they'd be up for opening the can of worms about their various marriage misdeeds again is debatable. After giving a throwaway line of “next year, the Maldives!", there's a hint the door is still open to more couples trips, and sure, the Maldives isn't Asia but it's only a connecting flight away.